Gaza Missile Attacks on Israel

   


Message from:Luke Akehurst, Director, We Believe in Israel

Israel has been under attack since yesterday morning. As of 17:00 on Sunday more than 600 missiles have been fired into Israel and four Israeli civilians have been killed. Our colleagues at BICOM have prepared this special bulletin to help you understand the situation.

What has happened?
On Friday, violent demonstrations erupted on the Gaza border and two IDF soldiers were shot by Palestinian snipers, most likely from Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel responded by bombing a Hamas position killing 3 operatives.

In response Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a brutal and indiscriminate wave of missile attacks. More than 600 missiles have now been fired at southern Israeli communities and cities as far as Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Beersheva. The IDF in response attacked approximately 250 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets including terrorist cells that were firing rockets, tunnels, military compounds, homes of senior Islamic Jihad commanders, weapons depots and factories owned by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Hamas said that 11 people had been killed in Gaza, including a pregnant mother and her 18-month old daughter although Israel said the mother and baby were killed by a Hamas missile that misfired and most of these other fatalities were fighters. Earlier today Israel carried out a targeted strike on a senior Hamas leader, Hamdan El Hadary, who was in charge of receiving funds from Iran.

Three people have been killed in Israel. One 60 year old man when a missile hit his home, a factory worker when a missile hit his workplace in Ashkelon and another Israeli man was killed when a Kornet anti-tank missile was fired at his van near Kibbutz Erez. There are unconfirmed reports of another two Israeli deaths.

Israeli communities as far north as Rehovot have spent the weekend in shelters. Today the oncology department at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon was hit by missile shrapnel and the hospital was partially evacuated.

Talks between senior Hamas officials and Egyptian representatives are ongoing in Cairo to agree a potential cease-fire.

The international community has criticised Hamas. The State Department said the US supported Israel’s right to defend itself and the European Union called for an immediate halt to the missile fire from the Gaza Strip. Foreign Office Minister Mark Field said he was “deeply saddened by the civilian deaths in Israel and Gaza over the past 24 hours.” adding that “Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli communities are totally unacceptable. Strongly support UN efforts to de-escalate the situation.”

Why now?

In late-March Israel and Hamas reached an informal understanding via Egyptian mediation in which Hamas would cease violent attacks on the border and in return Israel would allow in cash from Qatar, incease the supply of fuel and power, open the border crossings and increase the fishing zone. The deal appeared to have led to much reduced violence but there were disagreements over whether each side had fully implemented their commitments.

There are two main reasons why hostilities escalated yesterday.

Timing: Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza are aware that Israel is approaching a sensitive period of public events - Memorial Day (Tuesday night / Wednesday) and Independence Day (Wednesday night / Thursday) and that next week thousands of visitors are expected to arrive for the Eurovision Song Contest. Hamas and Islamic Jihad felt they had an opportunity to force Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal with better terms for Gaza, particularly regarding the entry of more Qatari money into Gaza. This was due to a belief that Israel would not launch a ground offensive or a full scale war. There are also sensitive dates approaching on the Palestinian side - Ramadan begins tonight and on 14 May Palestinians mark the anniversary of events in Israel's war of independence that they call 'Nakba Day'.

Increased Islamic Jihad activism: Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has a new leader, Ziyad al-Nakhalah who is based in Damascus, and who is taking orders from Iran, wants to try and engage Israel in renewed and intensive hostilities in order to give Iranian forces in Syria greater room to operate. The theory being that if Israel is engaged in Gaza it won't be able to carry out operations in Syria.

What happens next?

Israel has experienced a number of periods of heightened conflict with Gaza in the last year. This peaked in November when more than 500 missiles were fired from Gaza, and Israel responded with strikes against 160 targets in Gaza. At that time, the two sides pulled back from the brink and agreed a ceasefire. Israel opted to focus on Hezbollah tunnels in the north and the (winter) weather was restricting Air Force operations. But none of these factors apply now. On Saturday, the IAF hit a Hamas post killing 3 operatives, and on Sunday, Israel targeted a group of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who were inside a weapons warehouse in the southern Gaza Strip.

While it remains a truism that neither Israel nor Hamas want a full-scale war and actions by both sides are often carefully calibrated, in the current situation, the IDF is gearing up for the potential of several days of combat and is deploying another armoured brigade to the Gaza border.

Looking foward, there will be two ways to evaluate the seriousness of escalations:

1. The targets being hit. Are missiles being fired into southern Israel or also towards Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas? And what sort of targets is Israel hitting in response? Israel killed a senior Hamas leader today, will they do this again?

2. The number of casualties. If large numbers of Israeli civilians are killed then the Israeli Government will be compelled to launch a more extensive response. Equally if large numbers of Palestinian civilians are killed in Israeli airstrikes, or large numbers of terrorist operatives, then missile attacks on Israel will be increased.

We will keep you updated as events unfold, and alert you if we need you to take action, such as writing to your local MPs.

Our thoughts are very much with the people of Israel at this difficult moment.

Go to: www.webelieveinisrael.org.uk