Israel strikes Gaza in response to Qassam rockets
Since the start of 2010, more than 20 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel from Gaza.
By DPA Tags: Gaza rockets Gaza Israel newsIsrael Air Force jets fired missiles early Wednesday at targets in the southern Gaza Strip, responding to rockets fired from the coastal salient by Palestinian militants, Israel's military said.
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman would not specify which targets were hit in the strike, shortly after midnight, nor confirm or deny eyewitness reports that an unused airport, named after late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was struck by a number of missiles. No injuries were reported.
He said the air strikes were retaliation to two Gaza-made rockets fired into southern Israel on Sunday and Monday.
"The IDF Israel Defense Forces will continue to act firmly against anyone who uses terror against Israel, and we see Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip," the military spokesman said.
Hamas, the radical Islamist movement running Gaza, has largely observed an unwritten truce since Israel's offensive into the Strip last winter, in which some 1,400 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed.
But Palestinian militants from other, smaller factions, have continued their sporadic rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza at southern Israel.
Israel has responded to these with air strikes on smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border with Egypt and on sites from which the rockets and mortars are being launched at it.
Despite the relative calm in Gaza and southern Israel over the past year, tit-for-tat violence has been on the rise in recent weeks.
The IDF said more than 20 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel since the beginning of 2010.
However, the number of projectiles fired since last winter's Gaza war stands at some 320, compared to more than 3,300 over the same period leading up to the 2008-09 offensive.
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The IDF represents the very essence of terror itself occupying the Palestinian territories daily and holding a whole civilian population at gunpoint. That's government sponsored terrorism in my book and no Palestinian on two feet should accept it nor will Israelis be allowed to maintain themselves in the Middle East acting in such a belligerent manner. Military force is a dead end. It cannot offer real security or indeed a real future. It's all make believe.....Dutch
The Israeli press and Israeli propaganda is obsessed with the box score on what the Palestinians are doing. But seem indifferent to what the IDF is doing to Palestinians. Has it never occurred to you that what the IDF does may have consequences? Surely you've never heard of counterinsurgency? You think it's better to create 100 enemies for each kill, right? That's what you right wingers call deterrence. But it doesn't ever make peace. If you want peace, you have to stop creating enemies willing to kill you because they see no better alternative.
Hey Mark, have you been to war or in a fire fight? You don't fire as many bullets as them and then quit, you use overwhelming fire power so they can't and won't try it again, it is called war. Why are you defending the Palestinians? They say they want a homeland and mean while they show what they would do if they had one. Once the terrorists start this in the USA you will sing a different song.
Of course theres a need for another Cast Lead, but when?
The IDF said more than 20 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel since the beginning of 2010. However, the number of projectiles fired since last winter's Gaza war stands at some 320, compared to more than 3,300 over the same period leading up to the 2008-09 offensive. I hope they are not stock piling weapons. i hope that Israels tactics are working as they appear to be. B"H
Dan you wrote exactly what I was about to write.
Since you're keeping score, why not report the entire box score. Why is it necessary to get the rest of the box score from Maan? They report 5 missiles or bombs shot at Gaza. How many dead on each side since January 1? How many wounded since January 1 on each side? How many tons of explosive have each side sent the other way? How many civilians targeted by each side? Oops, none are EVER targeted. How many closely missed? How many hit by accident? (Neither side ever claims to target any.) They're all accidents, right? How many left on base?
This "peace" was bought not only by the blood of Israeli civilians, but the "disengagement" from Gaza in which the Israeli government actually ethnically cleansed its own true citizens. Only when Gaza is underneath the Israeli flag again, and its land is acknowledged as the birthright of all Jews and the legitimate territory of the State of Israel, will the Arab rockets cease to kill our children.
Yea, The Palestinian News agencies also report the dingle Qassam and the six misslies/bombs dropped in return. Haaretz reports the 20 rockets and mortars. How many hundred return bombs and missiles and what was the tonnage of the explosives dropped in return? If you keep score, do it right. And how many combatants and civilians KIA and Injured on each side?