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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Gaza rocket barrage appears to target ceremony for captured soldier, IDF |
| 2017-12-30 |
| [IsraelTimes] Video from scene shows family members of fallen sergeant Oron Shaul taking cover during concert marking his 24th birthday Three rockets fired from the Gazoo Strip at Israel on Friday appeared to have been launched to deliberately coincide with a ceremony marking what would have been the 24th birthday of an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014, and whose remains are held by Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",. In general, terrorist groups fire their rockets under the cover of darkness, rather than in broad daylight, as in Friday’s launches. Three rockets were fired at the Sha’ar Hanegev and Sdot Hanegev regions of southern Israel on Friday afternoon. Two of them were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, while the third struck near a building in a community in the area, causing damage. The military censor did not allow the exact location of the strike to be published, as it could assist terrorist groups in fine-tuning their targeting for future attacks. The launches were also directed toward the area where the ceremony was being held, at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, overlooking the place where Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul was killed in the 2014 Gazoo war. The time and location of the event were publicized ahead of time. The barrage came just after a musical performance, setting off loudspeakers in the area, which blared, "Code Red. Code Red," the term for an incoming rocket attack. Far from bomb shelters, Jelin and the other members of the audience took cover on the grass, lying on the ground with their hands over their heads. The loud blasts of the rockets being intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system could be heard in the video, though they could not be seen because of heavy cloud cover. In the video, one member of the audience could be heard shouting in anger, saying repeatedly that Israel should "conquer Gazoo." An organizer of the event called for everyone to keep calm and to make their way back to the kibbutz’s bomb shelters. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... Yesh Atid MK Haim Jelin, a former head of a regional council just outside Gazoo who was at the ceremony and others said the ceremony should continue "for Oron’s sake." In a statement, Labor Party chief Avi Gabbay, who attended the event, said he was "filled with pride" that the ceremony went forward despite the attack. Shortly after the rocket barrage, the Israel Defense Forces retaliated by attacking two Hamas positions with tank shelling and strikes from aircraft. The rocket attack was the first such incident since December 18. Police said one rocket that wasn’t shot down by the Iron Dome system was found outside a building that had sustained damaged from the impact. There were no reports of casualties. This month saw two weeks of near-daily rocket launches, the largest incidence of missile-fire from the Strip since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. These daily attacks had recently seemed to have come to an end. According to Israeli assessments, the rockets are not being launched by Hamas, but by other terrorist groups in the Strip. However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... analysts have noted that Hamas has been either unwilling or unable to clamp down on the groups, as it has in the past. Protesting Trump’s December 6 declaration that Jerusalem is the Israeli capital, terror group Hamas, which runs Gazoo and seeks Israel’s destruction, has called for a new intifada and vowed to liberate Jerusalem. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 ^Yes |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2017-12-30 12:31 |
| #1 One of these days, Israel will get annoyed and bring up a Battery of 155's and do a counter-battery on the area where the rockets came from. |
| Posted by: Bill Omerenter2138 2017-12-30 08:09 |