Gaza militants may be firing a new type of rocket into Israel, police say
Police officials investigate the possibility that a rocket fired into Israel over the weekend is of a new, and more precise type.
By Yanir Yagna and Haaretz Service Tags: Israel news Gaza Hamas IranThe rocket which was fired into Israel early Saturday morning was not a Qassam, but may be a more advanced type of projectile which had been smuggled into the Gaza Strip, police officials told Haaretz.
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Qassam rocket fired by Hamas militants. |
| Photo by: Getty Images |
The officials were referring to a rocket, which was initially reported to be a Qassam, that had failed to explode after being launched by Gaza militants into the western Negev earlier in the day.
The rocket, police said, may have been a new, more precise standard issue rocket, as opposed to the local home-made Qassams, one which would have to have been smuggled into the Strip.
The projectile was transferred to a police laboratory in order to see if it indeed is of a different type than those fired into Israel until now.
Israel has long been claiming that Hamas has been continually arming itself with new types of weapons in anticipation for another round of violence in the wake of last years Gaza war.
In April of last year, Israeli sources said that Hamas had managed to smuggle a new arsenal into the Gaza Strip that would upset the balance of power, with the Palestinian Authority saying that Iran has smuggled a large number of weapons into Gaza by sea.
The PA had also claimed that Iranian technology has been used to increase the range of Qassam rockets Hamas is producing in the Gaza Strip to more than 20 kilometers.
Earlier this year, a confident of Hamas strongman Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was assassinated in his Dubai hotel, said that Mabhouh had supplied money and arms to "the resistance," saying that he played a key role in the arms smuggling chain, running from Iran into the Hamas-ruled Strip.
The aide, Mohammed Nassar, had been quoted at the time as saying that Mabhouh never stopped thinking about how to fight the occupation by supplying the Palestinian fighters with quality weapons.
"He participated with me in searching for weapons," Nassar said, according to an interview he had given to Al-Aqsa radio in Gaza.
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Israel should not be worry. Those idiots in Gaza cannot construct any compicated devices. Soon Israels Iron Dome will eliminata the threath.
There is no law against the occupied improving their weaponry. Quite simply, iy is not illegal, in fact, it is prefered that they have accurate weapons, by the very same conventions Israel is a party to.
I think you have something; Israel should use unsophysticated , cheap, inacurate weapons and let thte rockets land where ever and damn the cosequences - like your friends the Hamas and Hezbollah.
This morning I received an email from a friend of mine--one rocket landed 1000 feet from him. (For reasons of security I will not mention the exact location). He saw the trajectory launch form Gaza. He picked up the Bedoin boy he was playing backgammon with a rushed to a shelter. So you really think Israel launched 10,000 rockets toward itself. Do you also think Israel operated the gas chanmbers.. Where does this reasoning end. You need a reality check.
Innocent Ugandan and other football fans watching football in a foottball fan zone are blown to smithree ns by opium fuelled Islamic thugs ,try and give us the rationale for this callous shedding of innocent blood Arab proapagandists ?
that a million and a half people kept for more than sixty years in an camp behind barbed wires do not accept it and send some toys at their wardens.
That would be the one little luxury gazans have that would be removed from them because of hamas. perhaps that would be a tipping point. next elction perhaps gazans will be smarter and vote for bread and butter and not bombs and bullets
They din't finish their task: Free Gaza from Hamas!
Due to its barbaric actions in Gaza IDF still produces new Hamas militants. The more killed Palestinians the more new Hamas fighters. This logic works all over the world. If you want to "free" Gaza from Hamas that way you have to kill all Gazans.
But leave it half baked?They fight well.Methinks it is not the IDF's fault,but the Israeli leaders who order them to cease fire.as Olmert did duringh the 2nd Lebanon war.Just as the boys were advancing going as far as the Litani-almost near Damascus,then oops! up comes not only Olmert but the coward Nasrallah asking for a ceasefire too. I know it from the horses mouth ---so to speak the IDF soldiers telling the Govt:: Dont call us if you don't mean it. It was voiced by the reservists who left home,jobs,family behind for NOTHING!
So they were aiming for that open emply field then
Neither the iron dome nor any other ....dome could prevent us from our fight for liberation and freedom.
You do it because of bloodlust that defines islamofascism.
There is no "occupation" of Gaza anymore, but you wouldn't know it to listen to the fanatics of Hamas who will bring down another rain of destruction on Gaza's hapless citizens. Gaza is blockaded for good reason--because of the years of rockets on Israeli civilians, because of the rockets that they shot at the border crossings every time Israel opened them to cross-border traffic, because of the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, and finally, because they are openly committed to Israel's destruction and amassing the arms to do so. So where is apartheid-Judge Goldstone now? Or is it of no interest to him until Israel is forced to defend itself?
Germany won't fund subs for Israel, the world demands Israel be held accountable for it's crimes, and suddenly Israel is under a "new threat". Talk about convenient.
Israel is trying to convince the world to attack Iran.
No Pal in teh USa, Iran is trying to convince teh world to attack it by defying Un resolutions, spomnsoring, funding arming terror groups, and shootingm its mouth off telling teh world it will wipe certain countries of the map. Wonder what Ubncle sam would do and say if iran threatened to wipe USa off the map. "bombing dtarts in fiove minutes is what Uncle sam would say. Dont be a twit
at innocent civilians.
Will do everything until they are free from the Sionists criminals.
In suicide attacks on buses and rocket attacks on cities? Poor, poor, desperate "people"... Let's help them to kill more.
First it was Hilary who told AIPAC (I believe) that the Gaza situation is fundamentally unsustainable because in time, the Pals will acquire better rockets. Very recently it as Bill who told Wolf Blitzer this ( I am trying to quote him as best as I can:) " Right now the Hamas fire a thousand rockets to kill one Israeli; but I am afraid that once they learn to mount a GPS unit on it, they may kill 1000 Israelis with one rocket." - - - Let us see what Hilary and Obama will say and do now that that day seems to be approaching. Again it is possible that Hizbullah has already got better rockets! PM Ndetanyahu must deciode quickly, whether he bneeds to go on the offensive against Hamas, Hizbollah and the ultimate supplier of weapons, Iran. Shilly-shallying won't do any more.
Two Palestinians were killed and eighteen others wounded during a week of Israeli military operations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reports. n the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops killed two Palestinian fighters and wounded eight civilians, including five children and one woman, on Wednesday 21 July as they opened fire at a residential are in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun.
If Gaza fires a rocket into Israel, > it should respond with firing back ONE rocket. This is understood and accepted by the World and especially in the Middle East. It is Just and Lawful. We will help fund the production of a cheap and crude rocket from waste materials and the rocket can be fired from our existing Pinpoint Accuracy Platform. Hamas does not represent all Palestinians and WILL be made to stop !
Check out Res. 181 that defines your borders.
20000! your estimate is a bit high...It is less than half that number.
give me a break!! People who want peace dont fire rockets. How many rockets has Israel fired on them??
Methinks I smell a false flag operation. If the rockets are more accurate, they probably come from Mossad's arsenal.
"...with the Palestinian Authority saying that Iran has smuggled a large number of weapons into Gaza by sea." What happened to the blockade?
Another nonsensical report the aim of which is to suggest that lifting the Gaza blockade will lead to 'devastating' results. What a country Israel is! What a government! What bluffs, lies innuendos and underhand tactics! Eventually, what the world wants will happen, in the meantime, Israel is making certain its enemies increase in number. What future the Israeli government have for the Israeli people!
"with the Palestinian Authority saying that Iran has smuggled a large number of weapons into Gaza by sea. " The PA is constantly making ridiculous claims about Gaza. How can Iran be smuggling weapons to Gaza by sea when no ships are even allowed there because of the Israeli naval blockade? After the flottila incident you'd think they'd be aware that the entire world would see that this story doesn't add up.
Rockets are made in israel,,talk about shooting yourself in the foot
Hamas politics to bolster its supporters in West Bank is plain. However, if there will be dead civilians, it will be a very difficult choice. In any case, Gaza population will eventually suffer from the Israeli REactions to the Actions of their elected Hamas government. No state should be required to live under missiles on the ground that they cause only few casualties, and the response should NOT be proportional.
There really is no hope for Hamas. Not only do these misguided halfwits never seem to learn that Israel will rightfully retaliate but any donor country would be insane to give Hamas money for reconstruction only to have it demolished each time these fools shell Israel.
2 Can play at this game, if they want to keep firing Rockets, make sure you keep the Palestinian death toll high If they want to keep provoking Israel, make sure they answer in blood
That's not new, Israel did alreday killed innocent Palestinians.
You have blockaded their country by sea and air, fenced the place up. Its really just a big open air prison. Then you wonder why they they fight back. Truly amazing.
Thety cannot build, only destroy. They dom not build schools, hospitals infrastructure, only destroy as that is their death culture that they worship. They think they are spome holy fighters sent to destroy Israel. Gazans dont really want to be part of this mess, but they voted hamas in, and are trapped at this time. When teh people of gaza all 1.5 million of them rise up against hamas, Jihad , Al Quaeda and other intelopers, they may bvery well be able to take back their own lives. Sure some will die, but it is their problem , they created it.
which they fire indescriminately at our civilians. We close our land border to them (except for humanitarian supplies like food, water, electricity and money) because whenever we open the crossings they shoot at thme and attack and kidnap soldiers guarding the crossings. We are in a state of armed conflict with Gaza, and therefore legally entitled to close our borders to them and to blockade them. However, Gaza has two borders - one with Israel and one with Egypt. The Egyptian border is open (and furthermore as Arabs and Moslems the Egyptians are not subject to attacks by the Gazans), so how do you figure they are fenced up? They can come and go and conduct all the commerce they want to with Egypt. It's the height of hutzpa to demand that a country whose destruction your founding charter calls for open its borders to do business with you.
Of course Hamas can't build: the Israeli government is blocking all building materials from entering the Gaza Strip (with the help of its friends in the Egyptian government). There's only so much that can be smuggled through tunnels, you know.
to murder more palestinians by fabricating "new rocket" stories
Is a good excuse to drop bombs on them for firing,fire crackers that did not kill,injured anybody or caused any property damage.
that way palastinians will trun to democracy and stop firing weapons at the occupier and israel would live in peace.
Starting whenever you like, Israel has killed more civilians than Hamas, Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran combined. It is not even close. Israel has killed thousands of civilians since the turn of the century.
Of course it was to stop a murderous thug named Hitler. Today that murderous thug is called hamas. When gazans have enough of being painted with a bullseye on tehir backs they will get rid of hamas from within. Cleasrly they have not as yet had enough pain or they would take action. gazans arent stupid, they just dont have the guns that hamas does. Hard to push the thugs out when you are not armed whuich is why hamas has all the weapons
But Muslims (Sunni and Shiite) are killing each other every day in Muslim lands Natallie ,you really ought to stop your hypocritical crocodile tears already ?
Muslims have killed more Muslims in a couple of years then Israel killed in all its history
Syrian killed more civliians in one month in Hama in 1982, then Israel ever killed
Lebanon killed more during their Civil war, Syrian killed mor in Hama - not even close. It is a shame you lost your credibility over something so easilly researched
Your effort to allow the transport of arms and terrorists was successful . Are you proud of yourselves?
So a "rocket" that did not damage a single piece of infrastructure was found. This signifies the fact that Hamas is now capable of destroying Israel with their fancy Iranian missiles? Give me a break, Haaretz. I expect better from you than this tripe.
It ois Hamastans choice!!!
scary
Hamas thinks it can use Israel for target practice. Israel should announce that every rocket fired toward Israel from this point forward would be met by 10 Israeli rockets into Gaza. And, PLEASE, lets not hear about civilians. these terror thugs blindly launch rockets, with no worry about civilians. Enough !!
The UN and every country in the world regard the Gaza Strip as 'occupied'. That makes the blockade a crime against humanity. This phrase has a strict legal meaning and Israeli politicians will undoubtedly have to answer charges at the ICC at The Hague some day. The mills of God grind slowly but they grind exceeding fine.
if the ships contain nothing on Israel's published forbidden list, then Israel has no grounds to force them to offload that cargo in Ashod, and not procede to Gaza. That it does so makes the blockade illegal.
OK. Now the world would excuse starving 1.5 people, and who knows the remaining 3.5 in the West Bank soon. Would that settle the score?
The occupation of those towns since 1948 is illegal, and therefore the blockade is illegal.
But of course, non of the Israel-hating/anti-semites here will agree with you, albeit they'll applaud further attempts at targeting civilians.
Israel can do no right and reality isn't reality.
This amounts to a pathetically weak cross-border artillery barrage, PETER SM. That is not going to rise to the level of an "armed conflict", any more than the occassional Merkava tank shell that kills the odd Palestinian mother....
That's Israel choice. And the International Red Cross calls it collective punischment. If you don't know what that means, read the Nuremberg Trial.
If rockets will be fired into Ashkelon Sderot or Ashdod, israel should retaliate targeting discretionally places from where terrorists fire. Israel has the right to do it. Any attempt to indict Israel will be rightly stopped at the Security Council. Nothing to worry about.
And we wait for the Muslim butcher of Sudan and his Muslim Janjaweed militia and their day at the ICC courts in the Hague ,inshallah .
be sure to write about the eperience.
ever heard of a test fire? I'm sorry you didn't get to applaud the deaths of Israeli civilians this time, but I'm sure you're hoping they'll do better next time.
They're not trying to land a craft on Neptune here.
killing pal goons feeing safe in their palaces in Gaza.
That is SO funny. Oops, you didn't mean to be funny, did you.
let us know.
for our entertainment
i portend that the day a rocket has the range to hit tel-aviv... i mean ashdod? it's ok.. even haifa.. steady your hand they will say.. but a rocket that hits and reaches tel aviv? the day that rocket comes is the day that tel-aviv's streets will run red with blood... jews and likewise in defense arabs will march thru the streets and enact genocidal rage towards each other.. i emplore hamas to use more commoner sense than that
if you think its funny be a hero and fire a missile from gaza
The First Nation (indians) are the righful original inhabitants of America, The arabs are not in any way historically associated with the Land of Israel, until they came looking for work in the late 19th century. The language we use (like 'palestinians' and 'miltants') is strengtheing our ennemies.
Common sense.
Except that Israel-bashers and left-wing dupes like "Albrecht" have no problem with that, apparently.
Big talkers. Why don't you go a live within range of the inaccurate "arrows"
How would you like Kassams lauched at you? You wouldn't be laughing!
You want to say that the american indians were not able to defend themself against the invadors, inspite of having long range arrows and great courage. The palestinian arabs also were not able to prevent robbery of their home land, but we have and will never surrender for continuing israeli expansion .
I'm sure that the civilians in Israel killed and the children traumatized by these rockets fired specifically at civilian targets would not find it very amusing.
Then sit down and negotiate an end to this whole mess and you can have a state of your own...I forgot its easier tio talk about wanting a state instead of actually taking responsibility for having a state.