Israel kept up its airstrikes Thursday against militants in the Gaza Strip, and Hamas continued to fire heavy barrages of rockets at Israel, one day after an Israeli civilian was killed in a rocket attack. That death was the first such fatality in nine months.Hamas has been unleashing barrages of rockets, killing and maiming Israelis all within range of Gaza. That is a not insignificant fact that should be conveyed in the lede.
The Israeli Army said it had carried out five airstrikes since the early hours of Thursday morning against armed men and rocket launching squads in Gaza. Five militants were killed in those strikes, according to Hamas and Palestinian medical officials, bringing the total of Palestinians killed in Gaza since Wednesday to 17.
Two more militants were killed in two later attacks, according to local reports, and an airstrike in northern Gaza killed four young boys, aged 8, 9, 11 and 12, Palestinian medical officials said.
Eight Grad-type missiles fired from Gaza landed on Thursday afternoon in the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, to the north of the strip, Israel Radio said.
The Grad missiles have a longer range than the homemade, relatively crude Qassam rockets that are usually fired at the Israeli town of Sderot and farming communities bordering the Gaza Strip.
There were no immediate reports of casualties from Ashkelon, but the targeting of the center of that city of 120,000 people, a rare occurrence until now, will likely be seen in Israel as an escalation of the conflict.
Among the dead in Gaza were 11 militants and six civilians, including three young boys and a 5-month-old boy killed in airstrikes on Wednesday night, the medical officials said.
Most of the dead militants belonged to the military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades. One of them was Hamza al-Hayya, the son of Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas leader and legislator. Hamza was killed on Thursday morning in what the Israeli army said was a strike against a squad about to launch rockets.
The terrorists refuse to accept Gaza; they want to destroy Israel and will fight by all available means to do so. That means firing off barrages of rockets and mortars at Israel from within confined places where civilians live and work. It means knowing that Hamas leaders move within civilian areas on purpose so as to maximize casualties should Israel's airstrikes hit them.
The fact that Hamas managed to kill an Israeli yesterday is not for lack of trying; they've fired hundreds of rockets and mortars at Israelis with the express purpose of killing and maiming them. Note that 17 more Israelis were injured when one of those Grad rockets slammed into Ashkelon.
To ignore this, or to deemphasize this in the leading paragraph shows just how far the media will go to portray the Palestinians in a positive light.
Further, relying on Palestinian media sources for casualty information among Palestinians is also problematic given how they've routinely exaggerated or lied about the injuries sustained or those who died.
This should also give pause to anyone who thinks that Fatah is dedicated to anything but Israel's destruction - that Fatah provided Hizbullah with training and that they're not willing to cede armed resistance. Earth to Abbas; your terrorist minions have never stopped their war against Israel. Your terrorist group has been eclipsed by an even more violent terrorist group; Hamas.
UPDATE:
It's good to see that some Israelis are waking up to the realization that the terrorists have been at war with Israel and are now calling for Israel to return the favor. It also appears that Israeli airstrikes were launched against the home of the Hamas prime minister (via MSNBC).
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