While much of the planet—including both Israelis and Palestinians—are fighting the coronavirus, terrorists in Gaza decided Friday was time to fight Israeli civilians. A rocket was launched at southern Israel, with the IDF Twitter feed noting that “thousands of Israeli men, women and children” were in bomb shelters. The IDF retaliated, with the IDF saying in a follow-up tweet, “A rocket was fired from #Gaza at Israeli civilians earlier tonight. We just responded by striking Hamas terror targets in Gaza. As•the•world•fights•COVID19 We•must•also•fight•terror And we’ll defeat them. Both.”
While no injuries were reported by the IDF, spokesman for the IDF Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said on Twitter the attack occurred during Friday night dinner, which honors the weekly Sabbath—a key religious and family time in Israel. More globally, the incident shows a troubling trend from Iran.
Jason Greenblatt, former Middle East envoy for the Trump Administration, tweeted about the Gaza attack and a separate attack against Saudi Arabia from Yemen, “While humanity battles coronavirus Iran-funded terrorists fire rockets at Saudi Arabia & on Friday Iran-funded terrorists fired a rocket at Israel. All while Iranians suffer too. Will Iranian regime/it’s terrorist puppets ever learn or realize it’s time to build a new normal?”
Meanwhile, it’s not entirely normal these days even for Gaza terrorists. The Times of Israel, citing a Channel 13 report, said that a major Gaza protest marking the so-called “Land Day” and set to occur on the second anniversary of the so-called “March of Return” Gaza riots had been cancelled due to coronavirus.
Yet while some of the Gaza riots and violence may have subsided, Hamas’ call for it has not. In a report posted to the Hamas website, Raafat Morra, head of Hamas’ Media Division Abroad, was paraphrased as saying Palestinians were sticking to their “right to resist the occupation with all means possible until ending the occupation.” The term “resistance” is often used by Hamas as a reference to terror attacks.
So while Israel and the Palestinian Authority have worked to join forces to fight coronavirus, Hamas and the terrorists in Gaza are still taking to time to reiterate their violent approach, and even continue violent actions.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, March 29, 2020)