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Hours after ceasefire reached, Gaza mortar shells strike southern Israel; IDF responds
[IsraelTimes] IDF blows up source of shelling; no group takes responsibility for the attack, which sent residents of the Eshkol region running for shelterTwo mortar shells struck southern Israel just after midnight on Saturday, apparently hitting an open field, hours after a ceasefire was due to go into effect to put an end to a flare-up between the Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, terrorist group and Israel. In response, the Israeli military said it "attacked the mortar from which the shells were launched." There were no immediate reports of Paleostinian injuries. It was not immediately clear which Paleostinian terrorist group was responsible for the mortar attack. The shelling and subsequent retaliatory strike came hours after Hamas and the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terrorist groups announced that they agreed to a ceasefire with Israel, following talks with Egypt and other international bodies. "The regional and international mediation has led to an end of the current escalation between the resistance and the occupation forces," Hamas said. A senior Israeli defense official would not directly comment on the reported ceasefire, but said: "Facts on the ground will determine our continued response." Beginning at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, Hamas and other terrorist groups in the Gazoo Strip launched over 174 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel. The majority of them, well over 100, landed in open fields, where they caused neither injury nor damage. Over 30 of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. A number landed inside communities in southern Israel. Three Israelis were maimed when rockets hit a home and a synagogue in the border town of Sderot. They were evacuated to the hospital in moderate condition. A number of other projectiles that landed inside communities in the Eshkol region of southern Israel caused light damage to buildings and infrastructure. In some areas, the mortar shells knocked down power lines, causing temporary outages, a spokesperson for the regional council said. In response, the IDF launched its largest bombing campaign against Hamas targets in the Strip since the 2014 Gazoo war, hitting dozens of targets, the military said. The Hamas-run Gazoo health ministry said that two teenagers, aged 15 and 16, were killed in one of the IDF strikes on Saturday, on a building that the military said was used by Hamas for urban combat training and was situated over a tunnel that led into a "massive" underground network in Gazoo. Hamas claimed the rocket firings were a response to Israeli strikes, adding that the organization would cease firing projectiles if the Jewish state stopped attacking targets in the Strip. Israel launched the first  s early Saturday after an IDF officer was injured by a grenade thrown at him during a violent riot along the Gazoo border on Friday.
Striking in the heart of Gazoo City is typically only seen during full-blown conflicts like the war of 2014 and could mark a sign that violence is escalating. Posted by: trailing wife 2018-07-15 |
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