Posted on 01/29/2009 3:38:06 PM PST by Nachum
(IsraelNN.com) The Color Red incoming rocket alert roused Sderot residents from their beds at approximately 6:00 Thursday morning, barely giving the sleepy civilians time to scramble into shelters before a short range ("Kassam") rocket slammed into the community. No one was injured and no damage was reported.
The early warning system also sounded several minutes earlier in the Eshkol region, although it was not clear whether it was a false alarm, or if a missile had fallen in an as-yet-unidentified site.
Shortly after midnight, the Israel Air Force bombed a weapons depot in Rafiah. According to a statement released by the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, an accurate hit was identified. "As the sole authority in the Gaza Strip, Hamas bears full responsibility of all terror originating from within its area of control. The IDF will respond to any terror attacks in accordance with decisions made by the Israeli government," said the army spokesman.
The IAF air strike followed a rocket attack at approximately 9:40 p.m. Wednesday, which exploded in an open area. Residents raced into shelters after three false alarms had sounded earlier in the day.
Eshkol Regional Council head Chaim Lin told reporters following the attack, "This is the first rocket since the ceasefire [began]. We hope that the Israeli government will not be drawn into a policy of restraint, and that they will respond with force in order to preserve the security of the residents."
Tit for Tat Policy Also Returns The Israeli government has vowed to respond with military action to every attack, despite calls by U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell this week for Israel and Hamas to extend the "ceasefire."
The terrorist organization, which controls Gaza, formally rejected Israel's ceasefire terms on Wednesday. However, Hamas and other allied groups have refrained from firing long-range rockets at major Israeli cities since the IDF ended its Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Wednesday night's rocket attack followed a cross-border bombing by Hamas terrorists a day earlier that killed one IDF soldier and injured three others, including an officer who was seriously wounded.
Shortly after the bombing, the terrorists launched a follow-up mortar attack on southern Israel.
Meanwhile, IAF warplanes struck in response, targeting a terrorist who had carried out the attack on the soldiers. They also blasted a number of smuggling tunnels on the "Philadelphi" route that runs along the Egyptian-Gaza border.
“Tit for Tat Policy”
I like this. It will emphasize how often Hamas is attacking Israel.
Don’t they have some catching up to do?
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
Why is Israel refusing to use the C-RAM (Phalanx) system to blow these incoming rockets out of the sky? There is even a special ammunition for it that reduces the risk of falling debris from the rounds it fires.
I gather they are working on their own system, but C-RAM is here now, and not terribly expensive as these things go.
My own personal favorite solution is for the city of Sderot to obtain a 105mm howitzer for the express purpose of shooting down the rockets in flight. And while it would not particularly be very good at doing this, the “collateral damage” given to the Palestinian side at the approximate location where the missile was fired, when a high explosive 105mm round landed, would let the Palestinians know that an exact, tit-for-tat response had taken place.
Every time they fire a rocket, they get hit with an artillery shell.
Importantly, while the Palestinian Kassam-3 rockets fired at Sderot have about 10kg of explosives in them, the 105mm howitzer round has only about 2kg of high explosives in it, so they are approximately equal in destructive force.
Here it is:
I call it "Kilometers For Kassams" Snappy, ain't it?
For every single rocket that lands on Israeli soil the IDF cranks up tanks and bulldozers and shoves the residents of Gaza one kilometer closer to Egypt.
1 rocket? 1 kilometer of land is gone forever.
10 rockets? 10 kilometers of land is gone forever.
It's elegant, proportional, and so simple even an arab can understand it.
L
That’ll only sink into their heads if you expel the Palestinians from the land seized. Otherwise, they’ll ramp up the attacks in hopes of finding themselves on the Israeli side of the border.
That goes without saying.
L
ROFL! I love it!!! Can we try this on our southern border with Mexico too?
We have a southern border? When did that happen?
L
LLS
1/20 I remember waking up and seeing it. It wasn’t there before, I just know it wasn’t.
“Kilometers For Kassams”...You’re hired! Creative and energetic folks like yourself are needed to make this world a peachy place - so that the liberals will finally be satisfied and quit making the rest of us miserable. Woo-Hoo!
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