Israel under fire-August 2011

Israel under fire-August 2011

  • 8/25/2011
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    Despite the lull in rocket fire announced by Hamas on August 21, rocket and mortar fire at Israel's southern cities continues.
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    Some 20 rockets were fired at Israel's southern communities on Wednesday night (August 24), and at least 15 on Thursday (August 25). Several mortar shells hit the Erez Crossing, just as three Palestinian women and two infants were crossing back into the Gaza Strip after receiving medical treatment in Israel.
    A 9-month-old baby was hit by glass splinters when a rocket fired at Ashkelon Wednesday evening exploded near a house in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. A car caught fire and was destroyed, and damage was also caused to several structures.


    Source: ITIC

    Anti-terror activity: On August 24, in a joint IDF-Israel Security Agency activity, IAF aircraft targeted Islamic Jihad-affiliated Terrorist Ismail Zadi Ismail Asmar, born in 1974, from the city of Rafah. Ismail Asmar was involved in smuggling weapons and sought the execution of terrorist activity in Sinai. A direct hit was confirmed. Ismail Asmar operated with terror elements in the Gaza strip which have recently made several attempts to execute terror attacks in Sinai, on the Israel-Egypt border.

    Two terrorists who had fired rockets at Israel from two separate locations in the northern Gaza Strip were targeted moments after by an IAF aircraft.
    A squad of terrorists preparing to launch rockets into Israel was targeted by an IAF aircraft. The rocket launch attempt was thwarted after a hit was confirmed.
    An IAF aircraft targeted a terrorist squad in northern Gaza as it fired rockets into Israel, at the Eshkol Regional Council. A hit was confirmed.
    Overnight, IAF aircraft targeted a weapons storage facility in the northern Gaza Strip as well as a smuggling tunnel and weapons manufacturing site in the southern Gaza Strip.


     
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    Aerial footage showing terrorists in the Gaza Strip launching Grad missiles into Israel on August 20. (IDF Spokesperson)


    Supplies continue to enter Gaza: The border crossings between Israel and the Gaza Strip operated routinely despite the fact that several rockets landed near them. In addition, more than 100 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in need of medical treatment entered Israel and dozens of foreign volunteers were permitted to enter the Gaza Strip.



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    ​Gaza receives 1,200 truckloads of goods and gas every week


    Background

    In response to the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on August 18, the Israeli Air Force attacked a building in Rafah which served as a Popular Resistance Committees command site where prominent members of the organization were gathered. Kamal al-Nairab, commander of the PRC's central Gaza Strip faction, and two other prominent terrorists were killed in the attack. Also killed were two terrorist operatives from the organization's military wing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later said that "those who gave the order to murder our citizens, while hiding in Gaza, are no longer among the living."

    Following the Israeli response, the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip attacked Israeli cities and villages with almost 160 rockets, about 120 of which fell in Israeli territory. Some of the long-range rockets hit locations far from the Gaza Strip, including Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ofakim and Yavne. The IDF retaliated by attacking terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. In addition to rocket fire, dozens of mortar shell hits were identified in Israeli territory. At least one of them contained phosphorus.


    Mortar shell containing phosphorus (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

    Most of the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip participated in the rocket and mortar shell fire into Israeli territory.

    Among the rocket hits:

    • On August 19 a synagogue and a school in Ashdod were hit by rockets fired from Gaza. One person was seriously injured, and some ten were wounded. There was extensive damage to the building.


    Ashdod synagogue hit by rocket fire (Photo: Reuters)

    • On August 20 two Grad rocket hits were identified in Beersheba, causing the death of one Israeli civilian, critically wounding four others and inflicting varying degrees of injuries on three others; considerable damage was done to one house in the city.


    Scene of rocket attack in Beersheba in which one person 
    was killed and 10 wounded (Photo: Reuters)

    • On August 20 two Grad rocket hits were identified in the region of Ashdod. Four civilians were wounded, one of them critically; several structures were damaged.

    • On August 20 two more Grad rocket hits were identified in the region of Ashdod. Six civilians were wounded, three of them critically; one sustained minor injuries and two were treated for shock.

    • On August 20 three rocket hits were identified in Ofakim, wounding several people including a four-month-old baby and causing severe damage.


    Ofakim home hit by a rocket 
    (Photo: Noam Badin, courtesy of the Sderot Media Center)

    • On August 20 a rocket hit was identified in the western Negev; property was damaged.

    • On August 21 another Grad rocket hit was identified in Beersheba and property was damaged.

    • Eliyahu Naim, 79, who sustained serious head injury while running for cover during an Ashkelon rocket attack on August 22, 2011 died at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem on Sept 4, 2011.​