10:15 pm. FINAL UPDATE FOR THUSDAY.
It has been a long day today starting at 5:11 am. this morning with the two explosions from the Hamas terrorist rockets striking Ashkelon. We’ve heard explosions all around us, been rocked by the incoming rockets sirens twice–and been in and out of our bomb shelter each time, and watched as those further south than we are (in Ashkelon, Sderot, Kfir Azza, Ofakim, and Beersheva) have fared worse than we. Let’s hope the government and the IDF get their acts together tonight and start defending the people of southern Israel.
8: 20 pm. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
Gaza rocket fire hits Erez Crossing damaging a building. It turns out that the 7:35 alert was for 3 rockets hitting the area, and Sha’ar Hanegev being hit by a Qassam. At 6:56 pm another rocket exploded south of Ashkelon.
7:40: UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
We’ve just emerged from the bomb shelter again. Another Grad alert 5 minutes ago. No sounds of explosions on this side of Ashdod.
7:19 pm. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
Sirens sounded in Ashdod 5 minutes ago. Impending Hamas Grad rocket attack on Ashdod citizens. We have just come out of our bomb shelter. We have no idea what the Grad or Grads hit.
6:37 pm. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
Two Palestinian terrorist rockets reported to have struck Israel’s Eshkol region attempting to kill Israeli children, women, and men. This was the 6:29 alert.
6:29 pm. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
Impending rocket sirens for Hamas terrorist missiles fired from Gaza sound throughout Ashkelon.
4:45 pm. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
More terrorist rocket fire from Gaza this afternoon. At least one possibly two missiles (reports are confusing) hit between 1:45 and 2:30 pm. this afternoon. Incoming rocket sirens heard south of Ashkelon.
Netanyahu has announced that he is holding a meeting of the security cabinet in the next few hours to discuss the continued Hamas pummeling of the people of southern Israel. However, he has already tipped off the media that whatever is decided, it will be done “with restraint.”
Sometimes (you’ve heard me say this before), your humble servant feels like screaming at the moon. “With restraint”! By the time Israel takes the gloves off and deals with this problem once and for all, Hamas will have accumulated another 10,000 rockets and every child (and many adults) in southern Israel will have been traumatized.
11:39 am. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
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Road 12 to Eilat is reported closed again for security reasons.
We still have no explanations for what we heard this morning. Your humble servant’s theory is simply that all rocket fire on Israel is not being reported by the government. For example, when Grads fall in the dunes between Ashdod and Ashkelon, we hear the loud explosions–but often there is no mention of these anywhere.
In the meantime, an interesting story from yesterday. According to Egypt’s state news agency, MENA, an Egyptian woman in Rafah (the location of the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza) was injured by a rocket fired by the terrorists in Gaza. It was further reported that Egyptian security forces were concerned because it was the first time that a rocket from Hamas had “landed in a residential area and not in the desert.”
And what dear readers is the “desert” in Egyptian terminology? Sderot, Ofakim, Beersheva . . . you get the idea. It was all right when the rockets were dropping on Israelis–but now on Egyptians? That is a cause for Egyptian concern.
8:41 am. UPDATE. (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
More explosions to the south.
8:29 am. UPDATE (main blog posted below at 6:55 am.)
We have just heard loud multiple explosions south of our position. No details yet.
TODAY’S MAIN BLOG POST
6:55 am. The ‘ceasefire’ that never was a ceasefire is in tatters–at least from the standpoint of Hamas Palestinian terrorists continuing to fire rockets at Israeli citizens in southern Israel.
We were awakened here in Ashdod at 5:11 am. by two loud explosions–which it turns out were Grad rockets striking Ashkelon–10 km away.
Overnight saw an assault of over 10 more rockets fired by Hamas at Sderot and Beersheva–one of which was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. A nine month old baby was injured in Ashkelon.
The IDF kept its part of the ceasefire, however, by doing what it always does–mainly attacking empty buildings in Gaza including a weapons storage facility, a smuggling tunnel, and an Islamic Jihad sports facility.
Hamas’s continued assault on Israeli civilians is no surprise. Yesterday, senior Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Zahar said that “Palestinian factions reserve right to attack despite [sic] truce.” In other words, Hamas is not abiding by any so-called truce or ceasefire.
So why doesn’t Israel act decisively to stop the assault on Israeli citizens? Over the last three days, your humble servant has given you all the excuses that the Israeli government has manufactured so far. You, dear reader, can supply the answer.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.