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Terrorist rocket fire continues, but Israel blunts impact with strong defense

The IDF continues airstrikes on the terrorist military infrastructure in Gaza.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

Terrorist groups in Gaza continued firing rockets at Israeli population centers Tuesday as the Israel Air Force struck back at terrorist infrastructure there. The general assessment is that Hamas fire has been ineffective, while Israeli attacks have whittled Hamas down to size. Evidence to this effect is the silencing of Hamas rocket fire on Israel’s central region since Sunday night.

Notwithstanding  the deaths of 10 Israelis, the IDF has managed to deny Hamas the dramatic military success the terror group desperately wanted. The IDF has foiled the vast majority of rockets and mortars Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched at Israel, as well as anti-tank missile attacks (barring one death), drone attacks and even an unmanned submersible (destroyed by Israel’s Navy).

While blocking terrorist attacks, the IDF has taken a heavy toll on Hamas infrastructure and personnel, targeting the terrorist group’s own defensive system, its miles of underground tunnels.

On Monday, Israel dropped “guided armaments” on 65 targets using 62 fighter jets, the IDF said.

On Monday evening, the IDF said jets destroyed the main operations center of the Hamas internal security forces in Gaza City, which it said was “a central part of Hamas terror infrastructure.”

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On Sunday-Monday night, the IDF attacked 35 targets in 20 minutes using 54 planes and 110 bombs. Those airstrikes destroyed some 15 kilometers (9 miles) of terrorist tunnels built by Hamas to allow the free underground movement of men and weapons. An estimated 100 kilometers of tunnels have been destroyed by the IDF since the start of hostilities.

The IDF has also killed several high-ranking members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Morale among citizens in the south, which has suffered the most from Hamas rockets, appears to be high. The mayor of the small city of Sderot that has been hit by more than 6,000 rockets since 2001, called on the government to back the IDF and let it continue to destroy Hamas targets.

“We give full backing and say things clearly – the IDF should attack with all its might. We want it to continue so that the snake’s head is fatally injured,” Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi told Kan News.

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The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said that since Monday night 90 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel, with about 20 rockets exploding on the Gaza side of the border and most of the other rockets either exploding in open areas in Israel or shot down by the Iron Dome defense system.

Several rockets managed to explode in populated areas, damaging residential buildings in the cities of Ashdod and Sderot. Palestinian sources claimed a rocket that exploded in the city of Beersheba started a fire.

As of midnight on Tuesday, the Magen David Adom (MDA) rescue service reported that 12 people had been treated for light injuries as a result of the most recent rocket attacks.

Since Hamas began hostilities with a rocket attack on Jerusalem May 10, MDA has treated 311 casualties, including 10 fatalities. Of the injured, 106 people were wounded by shrapnel including six critically and 11 with moderate wounds.