Rocket fire at Israeli towns and cities continues as Hamas claims it attacked Israeli Air Force bases.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
Palestinian terror groups fired dozens of rockets from Gaza Wednesday in the 10th day of continuous rocket attacks on Israeli population centers.
There were no reported injuries from the latest waves of rockets that concentrated rocket fire on the farming communities along the Gaza border and cities up to 40 kilometers away.
In a barrage that set off alerts sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis running for bomb shelters just before 1:00 a.m., the Hamas terror group claimed that “the Martyr Ezz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades bombed their missile bursts at the Palmachim air base” – an IDF helicopter base on the coast south of Tel Aviv.
Those rockets set off air raid sirens in the cities of Rechovot, Nes Tsiona and Yavne with Hamas apparently also targeting the Hatzerim Air Force Base south of Rehovot, where a few hours earlier Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured the base.
“I was briefed on our many attacks against Hamas and Islamic Jihad; they received blows that they did not expect. I have no doubt we set them back by years,” Netanyahu said while at Hatzerim. “I am holding assessments of the situation and we are making decisions. We will continue as long as necessary in order to restore the quiet to all citizens of Israel.”
In a message to others in the region who aspire to harm Israel, Netanyahu pointed to the heavy damage inflicted by the IDF on the Hamas military infrastructure in Gaza.
“I am certain that all of our enemies around us see the price that we are exacting for the aggression against us, and I am certain that they will draw the conclusion,” Netanyahu said.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said that as of Wednesday morning, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had fired approximately 3,750 rockets at Israeli territory, with the Iron Dome Air Defense System intercepting 90% of them.
Twelve people in Israel have been killed by rocket and mortar fire from Gaza. Hundreds more were injured, most of them lightly.
Over the past two days there have been gaps of several hours with no rockets fired, but the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group posted a picture on its website of a rocket storage area, saying that their “capabilities are fine and we have more and are ready to confront you for many months.”
Authorities in Gaza, where Hamas has built an extensive military network but not provided any civil defense infrastructure for the residents, said that 219 people have been killed there since the beginning of the fighting and 1,530 have been injured, although it is not clear how many of the dead are members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.