Hamas continues to harm

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Hamas continues to harm

According to the Times of Israel, since Monday, ”over 120 missiles have been fired into Israel, including more than 70 fired on Wednesday alone.”

But, as a poignant and personal article in the UK’s Telegraph notes, this, the latest in a never-ending series of rocket attacks on southern Israel, has barely made a scratch on international headlines, or on the agendas of world leaders. The loss of life and terror Hamas has caused has largely been ignored by those who do not live in daily fear of it.

A young Israeli’s home is destroyed by a Hamas rocket (Photo: Edi Israel).

Authors and respected heads of Israeli regional councils in southern Isreal, Haim Yellin, Alon Shuster and Yair Farjun, write from experience on the matter:

Another week and another volley of deadly rockets have landed on our communities. As heads of the three Israeli regional councils which skirt the border with Gaza, the 130 rockets that were fired on our region over the last few days constitute a sad but all too familiar scenario. Imagine, rockets were falling on your family, your home, your community? Protecting our children from daily Hamas terror has sadly become our top priority.

The toll from this week’s attacks from Gaza includes several wounded civilians, injured when an apartment building was hit. Ominously, taking advantage of instability in Egypt and an increase in arms smuggling by terrorists in Sinai, rockets were launched from Sinai as well as neighbouring Gaza. The city of Ashqelon, home to 113,000 people, and the capital of the south, Beersheba, were a particular focus for the onslaught. Hamas, backed by Iran and the sole authority in Gaza, proudly took responsibility for many of these attacks on our civilian centres. But none of this is news. Our small region has been the target of 13,000 rockets fired from Gaza in a decade. More than one million Israelis are in range, living under a cloud of constant fear.

Read the entire article, Stop the Hamas rocket assaults on…
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Friday, June 22nd, 2012 at 12:40 PM | Stand for Israel
Hamas claims responsibility for rocket attacks

Six rockets were fired at southern Israel overnight. No injuries were reported. Hamas has taken responsibility for three of the rockets, claiming they were fired in retaliation for Israeli strikes that claimed the lives of four Palestinian terrorists killed during attacks against Israel earlier this week. The other rockets were the handiwork of Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terror organization operating in the Gaza Strip.

Lately, Hamas has refrained from firing rockets, preferring to “outsource” terror activity to Islamic Jihad (as was the case in March, when Islamic Jihad and the IDF clashed while Hamas stood on the sidelines). Monday night’s attacks showed a clear departure from Hamas’ policy of restraint and might signal that the terror group’s appetite for violence has surfaced once again.

Following last night’s attacks, the Israeli Air Force struck a terror cell planting explosives along the Israeli-Gaza border. Two Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed in the strike.

Rockets fired from Gaza

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Tuesday, June 19th, 2012 at 10:40 AM | Amichai Farkas
Hamas officials sheltered by Red Cross in Jerusalem

Photo by Chameleons Eye / Rex Features

It appears that, for the better part of the last year and a half, officials at the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Jerusalem have been sheltering two wanted Hamas officials.

Hamas, you’ll remember, is a designated terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip and which unabashedly calls for the destruction of Israel and the destruction of the Jewish people. When not engaged in genocidal anti-Semitism, they also like to endanger their civilian population, degrade and subjugate women, and commit violence against their political enemies.

Israeli police arrested the two men this morning.

Funny…even with that level of cooperation, the ICRC still couldn’t manage to get into Hamas-controlled Gaza to visit with kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit during his captivity. Or, perhaps because of that level of cooperation, they just weren’t trying all that hard. Kind of makes it tough for Israelis to trust them, huh?
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Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 10:17 AM | Stand for Israel
Terrorist on Tour

Senior Hamas leader Haniyeh surrounded by his bodyguards (Photo: Reuters)

A telling sign of the times in the wake of the Arab Spring:

Buoyed by the rise of the Islamists to power in the Arab world, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is planning a tour of Arab and Islamic countries – the first of its kind since his movement came to power in 2006.

Yusef Rizka, political advisor to Haniyeh, said that the emir of Qatar has invited the Hamas prime minister to visit Doha, but no date has been set yet.

According to Rizka, Haniyeh is currently considering visiting not only Qatar, but also Turkey, Bahrain, Tunisia and a number of Arab countries. He pointed out that Turkey had also invited Haniyeh.

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Monday, December 19th, 2011 at 4:15 PM | Stand for Israel
Protecting Israel from terror

Responding to the recent escalation of rocket fire stemming from the Gaza strip, IDF Chief Benny Gantz addressed the Israeli Knesset’s Defense Committee and stated that the Israeli army will eventually have to “launch a major offensive in Gaza,” in order to restore security to the southern Israeli cities that are under constant attack.

If and when the IDF launches a military offensive in the Gaza strip it would be the second of such operations since Israel’s disengagement from Gaza in 2006, which ended all military presence in Gaza and uprooted thousands of Israeli residents from the Gush Katif settlements.

While many in Israel thought that quiet would prevail as a result of the disengagement, the exact opposite has been true.

Since Israel’s evacuation of Gaza, Hamas has violently taken control of the strip and has launched a campaign of terror against the Jewish state. Islamic Jihad – which like Hamas receives support from Iran – has flourished in the Hamas ruled Gaza and is now responsible for many of the rocket attacks against Israel.

Israelis understand the necessity of launching a military offensive in Gaza to diminish the power of Hamas and Islamic Jihad and to deter terrorists from continuing to fire rockets into southern Israel. However, there is a great concern that anything short of retaking control of the strip and establishing the IDF as the sole power in Gaza will not lead to long term security in southern Israel.

Therefore, the more hawkish Israeli citizens believe that the army should reassert its power in Gaza to permanently root out Hamas and Islamic Jihad. However, realistically speaking Israel is not going to retake control of the Gaza strip in light of the political and diplomatic consequences that would ensue. Hence, any future operation in Gaza will be limited to destroying smuggling tunnels and terrorist training bases, confiscating or obliterating all weapons that are found, as well as capturing or killing Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists.

Unfortunately, a limited operation will only lead to temporary security for southern Israel. Even a highly…
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Taken from Stand for Israel