UPDATE 10:00 pm: **Total rockets today 112**
This will be the final update today. Apparently, the IDF has ridiculously agreed to yet another “ceasefire” with Hamas two hours from now at midnight–and Hamas wants a ceasefire because tomorrow is a Muslim holiday. Other Palestinian terror organizations affiliated with Hamas such as Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Resistance Committees have declared that “there is no truce with Israel.”
Different Israeli media are reporting varying numbers of rockets launched by Hamas today–between 50 and 85. None of these numbers are accurate and will gradually be changed over the next few days to reflect the number on this blog.
The latest bit of news is that Netanyahu and Barak have decided that it wouldn’t be a good political idea to attack Gaza before the Israeli elections in January.
So how are southern Israelis along the Gaza border feeling tonight? Angry, abandoned, and defenseless. They know they live in a country led by sleazy politicians who will say and do anything to get elected or re-elected. They know they live in a country run that will not protect them.
UPDATE 5:30 pm: **Total rockets today 111**
What is different about the missile attacks today and those of the last week is that the terrorists in Gaza are now using “mulitiple” remote controlled rocket launchers, many of which are underground. So whereas in the past, a red siren would be warning of one incoming rocket, now it is warning of at least three or four. Chof Ashkelon received the most recent barrage at around 4:50 pm.
UPDATE 4:15 pm: **Total rockets today 108**
We are being rocked by continuing explosions here in Ashdod–in the last 20 minutes we have heard the distinctive sounds of missiles exploding, and Iron Dome shoot downs in the Chof Ashkelon region–just 6 km south of here.
UPDATE 3:00 pm: **Total rockets today 96**
Four missile barrages have taken place in the last two and a half hours. There have Iron Dome shoot downs over Ashkelon. Chof Ashkelon and Eshkol regions have been particularly hard hit.
UPDATE 12:30 pm: **Total rockets today 78**
Another volley of terrorist rockets struck the Chof Ashkelon region at 12:20 pm.
UPDATE 11:45 am: **Total rockets today 74**
An unconfirmed report from Soroka Hospital in Beersheva that two of the people hit this morning in a rocket attack, Thai agricultural workers, have died.
More Israeli wounded arriving at Soroka Hospital in Beersheva (photo courtesy: Walla).
UPDATE 11:00 am: **Total rockets today 74**
Another volley of 4 Palestinian terrorist rockets hit the Eshkol region between 10:27 and 10:36 am. More injuries reported.
One of the first pictures out of southern Israel today (photo courtesy: Eshkol regional council)
Another picture this morning from Kibbutz Ein:
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(Photo courtesy: Maariv)
UPDATE 10:10 am: **Total rockets today 70**
Naftali Bennett, the candidate who will be leading the Bait HaYehudi (Jewish Home) party in the coming elections, has just summed up the feelings of everyone here in the South by wondering: “Where in the world is Benjamin Netanyahu?”
As Bennett says: “Netanyahu, give orders to do something!”
UPDATE 9:45 am: **Total rockets today 61**
Speaking on Army radio, Israel’s so-called Defense Minister Ehud Barak has just “reassured” southern Israelis that the IDF is “exploring options” to return “quiet” to southern Israel. However, he said that a full scale military operation against Hamas is “unlikely at this time.”
What a pathetic joke. There hasn’t been quiet in southern Israel for almost a decade. Unlikely at this time? Unlikely ever–as long as Barak is in charge.
UPDATE 9:00 am: **Total rockets today 52**
All Israeli citizens with 10 km of Gaza are now ordered to stay in bomb shelters (as if anyone was coming out of his or hers). Of the rockets launched against southern Israel so far today, 22 have hit the Eshkol region, 21 the Lachish region, and 9 the Negev region. Schools canceled throughout the south, border crossings closed. Another Israeli injured by shrapnel from rocket: woman running to bomb shelter in Chof Ashkelon region is hit.
Two explosions have just occurred to the south of us.
UPDATE 8:30 am: **Total rockets today 41**
More reports are now filtering in as we continue to hear explosions to the south of us. Seven rockets fired at Ashkelon and Ashdod have been intercepted by the Iron Dome system. Amazingly, no warning sirens whatsoever have been heard here in Ashdod. Several Border Police reportedly wounded.
UPDATE 7:45 am: **Total rockets today 30**
Five more rockets have struck southern Israel in the last 15 minutes. Two people have been critically wounded and two more “moderately” wounded. Three homes have been hit including two direct hits.
UPDATE 7:30 am am Israel time Wednesday and TODAY’S BLOG:
There will be no israelstreet blog today because of the war currently raging in southern Israel. This main page will be devoted to continuing updates about the situation.
Following the seven Qassam missiles that hit Sderot and the Eshkol region last night, there have been at least 25 more missile strikes on southern Israel this morning all up and down the coast and along the border, especially in the Chof Ashkelon and Eshkol regions–as of this time. There are reports that there have been direct hits on homes and that there are casualties.
At our position here in far south Ashdod, we have been hearing continuous explosions just to the south of us for the last 45 minutes–strong enough to rattle the windows of our house. We can hear the Iron Dome system shooting down rockets over Ashkelon.
Thus far, five Palestinian terrorists have been killed in three separate IAF strikes overnight and this morning.
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.