Rocket attack, reprisals on southern border
Israel has carried out airstrikes against dozens of Hamas targets, after a rocket landed in Sderot, after two years of relative calm.
Israel has carried out airstrikes against dozens of Hamas targets, after a rocket landed in Sderot, disrupting the calm felt in the southern Israel city over the last two years.
This week marked two years exactly since the end of the last round of fighting between Israel and Gaza’s rulers Hamas, and since then the city has mostly enjoyed quiet. But last month a rocket hit a Sderot building, and on Sunday a rocket landed between two homes, with many residents saying it was a miracle that nobody was hurt.
“It’s worrying for us that someone could have been hurt, and that the situation may now escalate,” Dov Drachman, a local resident, told The AJN.
Israel’s reaction was much stronger than normal, consisting of around 50 strikes on Hamas targets, including what the military calls key strategic assets.
Hamas is especially angry about the Israeli operation, as it was not one of its rockets that landed in Sderot but one from a rival faction in Gaza. This doesn’t make a difference in Israel’s eyes, as all fire emerging from Gaza is seen in Jerusalem as Hamas’ responsibility.
So far, Hamas has not responded by ramping up violence, but in Sderot some residents fear that this could happen. “Just because they haven’t launched 15 or 20 rockets so far is doesn’t mean they won’t in a few days,” said Drachman.
Others residents are optimistic, with many saying that Hamas’ desire to maintain calm during campaigning for the October 8 Palestinian elections, in order to promote the view that Hamas politicians are good for Gazans. “These have been the quietest two years this area has known and it cannot be that an isolated incident will end the quiet,” said Sderot’s mayor Alon David.
The Israeli military said that it did not want to escalate violence, but that it was not prepared to let the rocket attack pass without reprisal. “The IDF remains committed to the stability of the region and operated in order to bring quiet to the people of southern Israel,” said IDF spokesman Peter Lerner.
“When terrorists in Hamas’ Gaza Strip, driven by a radical agenda based on hatred, attack people in the middle of the summer vacation, their intentions are clear – to inflict pain, cause fear and to terrorise.”
Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded to the attack by saying that Israel will not allow Hamas to rebuild its weapon supplies, and said that Israel wants to tie rehabilitation of Gaza to disarmament on Hamas’ part.
President Reuven Rivlin toured the Sderot region on Tuesday, and declared: “On both sides of the border there are civilians who want to live in quiet and we will be sure that the citizens of Israel will continue to live in harmony. We do not seek war. Yet, after having sat with our wonderful commanders I know that if war is forced upon us, we have an army as ready and professional as could be asked.”
NATHAN JEFFAY
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