It’s been another rocket night in southern and central Israel, with Code Red sirens blaring and mortar shells flashing – in fact, the hits just keep on coming . . .
Israelis in the coastal cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod spent most of the night in their track shoes so they could make it to their shelters with ease. Gaza terrorists sent missiles flying towards both cities at least once or twice an hour for most of the evening.
Residents who still don’t have comfortable shelters or safe rooms were forced to make the trip back and forth quite often; those who have ‘mamads’ – Hebrew for ‘safe room’ – built into their apartments by now have learned to furnish it appropriately with comfort foods, games, electronic communication devices and other entertainment accessories.
Some Israelis were not as well equipped or fast enough, however and others were either too fast or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. One was the victim who was badly hurt when their car was directly struck by a rocket.
In addition to eight people wounded by mortar fire in the Eshkol Regional Council district earlier in the day, six more were similarly injured Thursday evening. According to a report broadcast by Channel 2, the latest group was hurt when a mortar shell exploded in their midst after having been fired from Gaza.
A barrage of four Qassam rockets had also landed in Eshkol — and one in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council district — barely an hour earlier.
In fact, according to Magen David Adom, 26 people were injured on Thursday alone due to Gaza rocket fire, bringing the total number of injured to 625 since the start of Operation Protective Edge. Of those, 117 have been treated for trauma and shock.
Terrorism against Israelis elsewhere in the country on Thursday evening involved rock attacks on the roads; a mother was forced to do some fancy driving to evade road terrorists on the Tali Tekumi highway near Jerusalem. She and her daughter were both wounded in that attack and her vehicle was damaged; both were evacuated to a nearby hospital for treatment. Security personnel are searching for the terrorists.
While all this is going on, the Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite television network reported this evening that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry are calling for another humanitarian cease fire, this one to last 72 hours. (Didn’t we just do that?)
No, I’m not kidding. Not about any of it.
