Welcome to the land of Israel!!
Posted on 05/14/2008 9:57:06 PM PDT by Nachum
(IsraelNN.com) Arab terrorists in Gaza fired two Grad Katyusha missiles at southern Ashkelon late Wednesday afternoon, and one rocket scored a direct hit on a children's medical clinic inside a shopping center. Parts of the building collapsed, trapping four people for a half-hour. At least 94 people had been rushed to Barzilai Medical Center by 8:30 p.m., most suffering severe post-traumatic stress reactions.
A spokesman for the local Fire Department stated that the powerful rocket hit the building's 3rd floor and crashed down to the floor below. He said the firefighters rescued four people - including a little girl - who were trapped behind or under a collapsed wall. The destruction to the building was significant.
The shopping center is located in the southern area of the port city. The rocket hit at approximately 5:50 PM, an hour when the area is generally crowded with shoppers.
Witnesses said no Color Red incoming rocket alert was sounded. The early warning siren that was supposed to warn Ashkelon residents of an incoming attack was turned off a few days ago after several false alarms had caused panic among residents, military sources told Haaretz. The decision to turn off the system was coordinated with the defense establishment and the political tier, the sources said.
Four people were critically wounded, Barzilai Medical Center spokeswoman Leah Maloul told Arutz-7's Israel National News, including a 24-year-old mother and her two-year-old baby daughter, both of whom sustained severe head injuries, as well as the doctor who was treating her at the time of the attack, who suffered facial wounds. A fourth person was severely wounded in the stomach. The doctor's assistant was lightly wounded, as were ten others. The remainder who were brought into the emergency room suffered from severe post-traumatic stress reactions, Maloul said.
Barzilai's 100-member emergency team, comprised of a signficant number of secreterial and clerical support personnel, was mobilized immediately, she added. "They set up the calling center, all the computers -- it's a lot of work and has to be done quickly." The emergency telephone number at Barzilai Medical Center for families of people hurt in the missile attack on Ashkelon Wednesday is 12-55-171. The number serves English speakers as well as Hebrew speakers.
Family members will also be able to check up on their loved ones at their local hospital, no matter where in the country they are located, due to a unique national computer database called the ADAM system. "Every person who comes into the hospital from a terror attack of any kind is automatically entered into the national ADAM system. All the family member who lives outside the city has to do to check on their relative's condition is walk into their nearest hospital and ask them to look up the person in the ADAM system. They can do that from anywhere in the country," Maloul explained.
Ashkelon, Israel's 13th largest city with nearly 110,000 people, has come into range of Gaza's rockets over the past year and a half. Many of the rockets have landed very near the Rotenberg Power Plant, Israel's second-largest electric station, which supplies about a quarter of Israel’s electricity.
The Ashkelon power plant facility can be seen in the distance from Ashkelon's beach.
It is assumed that the afternoon's rocket attacks were timed to coincide with President Bush's visit in Israel. Analysts increasingly opine that a full-scale Israeli offensive in and against Gaza is likely to begin in a matter of days - or even earlier.
The late Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin, who signed the Oslo Accords on behalf of Israel, poo-pooed fears that Ashkelon would be targeted by rockets. He said in the summer of 1995, "We know all the scare-stories of the Likud. They promised [when the first Oslo agreement was signed, in 1993] that there would be Katyushas from Gaza. It's been a year already that Gaza is mostly under PA control, and there haven't been any Katyushas, and there won't be any... The Likud is simply scared to death of peace - they are 'peace scaredy-cats' - and for this reason is reacting in a truly childish manner."
Welcome to the land of Israel!!
War is close, like it or not the big one is at hand. Israel will unleash the IDF and hell will follow.
Don’t expect the U.N. to condemn this action; only when Israel tries to protect its citizens does the U.N. become indignant.
Israel should never have let Carter convince them to trade land for peace. Israel should have permanently kept all of the Sinai, Gaza Strip, West Bank, and Golan Heights. Their trying to appease the Arabs has been returned with rockets.
You just know that this was part of the plan.
All any “negotiations” with the Arabs have brought Israel is death.
So...what...? The city's moving closer to the firing positions? Come into range? WTF?
If this were my family, it would be 'on'. Bringing people to the peace-table requires that you demonstrate the ability and will to kill them in large numbers. Then, give them a choice. If they chose wrongly, you ramp-up the attacks.
At some point, they'll be interested in peace or they'll be staring extinction in the face. Most life forms abhor extinction and will go to great lengths to avoid it. Cruel as it may seem, those not willing to participate in a peaceful-coexistence must be shown the non-peaceful existence option.
Better sooner rather later. Iran, Hizbullah, Syria and Hamas.....That is a handful and they are getting stronger everyday while Olmert.....does nothing. I really think he is the most pathetic leader of a country...ever.
Badly worded, but they probably either mean that (a) they have better rockets with a longer range now, or (b) “come into range” just means that the city has been targeted over the last year.
....or Obambi
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
For years, Israel rained hell upon those who would attack her, but lately, she has lost her way.
She needs a leader.
If Obama gets elected, our support is gone.
But without a leader, it won't matter. The book may close. The corrupt bum Olmert now seems to have cought his tit in a wringer. Maybe he will be gone soon and Israel can get back to business.
I hope so.
It’s like letting murderers pitch a tent in your front yard.
Burn the tent and shoot them when they come out. Turbanation is in order..
Too much compassionate conservatism
Sorta like illegal Mexican felons.
It’s time for Israel to perform the “negotiations” with force and destruction of the source of any attack. Amen.
Lets hope they stop using half measures and ignore the UN when it starts bleating about a "dissproportionate response".
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Actually, when Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt, they tried to get them to take Gaza, and Egypt refused. They knew better. Israel should have held firm and insisted.
While arabs have no problem killing Jews, they also have no problem using palis as cannon fodder, or outright killing them as well. In fact, if not for being useful against Israel and Jews, the arabs would have exterminated the palis decades ago.
Mark
A little political message there in the face of this tragedy?
Although Carter is unquestionably hostile to Israel and pro-terrorist, I can't see how, in all fairness, he gets the blame for this tragedy. The launching site of the rocket was Gaza, which Israel did not give back to the Palis until 2005, when it unilaterally withdrew in a what the Sharon government called at the time "disengagement." Getting out of Gaza then has proven to be a huge mistake, one that many critics foresaw at the time.
A little political message there in the face of this tragedy?
Just joking. They are using longer range missiles and the firing positions are closer since the withdrawl.
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