Is another war on the horizon? Illustrative. Photo Courtesy of IDF Spokesperson.
The back and forth between Gaza terrorists and Israel got worse on the weekend, as rockets from Gaza hit an Israeli factory on Saturday and fired two more rockets on Sunday that were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system according to the IDF Blog and Twitter page. The IDF Blog said that more than 50 rockets have been fired at Israel in just the last two weeks.
And the Gaza terrorists didn’t stop there—the IDF Twitter page reported simultaneous to the Sunday rocket attack, terrorists opened fire at Israeli soldiers near the Israel-Gaza security fence.
And it could have been worse for Israel. The IDF Twitter page further reported Israel took out a terrorist rocket cell “during their final preparations to launch rockets at southern #Israel.”
Such a response is nothing new. On Saturday, in response to the ongoing attacks, Israeli warplanes struck terror sites, rocket manufacturing centers, and half a dozen hidden rocket launchers, according to the IDF Blog. More than a dozen such sites have been in the last two weeks in light of the Gaza rocket fire.
It’s some of the most intense fighting between the sides since a November 2012 war that saw a thousand rockets fired at Israel.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned after Saturday’s targeted strikes on terror sites that Israel is “ ready to expand this operation as per need.”
Netanyahu again reiterated his call for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to cancel his unity government with Hamas, the Gaza terror group that kidnapped three Israeli teens and is considered responsible for preventing rocket attacks. Netanhyahu said that responsibility has now been passed on to the overall Palestinian government led by Abbas.
“I would like to reiterate that from the moment the Palestinian unity government was established with the Hamas terrorist organization, the Palestinian Authority became responsible for preventing firing at our territory from the Gaza Strip… [Abbas] says that he opposes abductions; he says that he wants to proceed on the path to peace. If he stands by what he says, there is only one way to advance peace—and that is to tear up his agreement with Hamas.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 29, 2014)