© www.idfblog.comIsraeli tracking of rocket fire from Hamas.
The list of "Red Color" sirens heard on July 12, 2014, 4:30PM starts with Nahariya, 170km north of Gaza. "Tzeva Adom" (Red Color) is the IDF code for approaching missiles. One missile fell on an open space in the town, setting a distance record for Hamas. It fire capabilities cover the entire Coastal Plain.
There were at least two other massive launching events at 3PM and 4PM. The launching included medium and large range rockets and short-range mortars.
Ashkelon, near Gaza, was hit seven times during the day. In one of the sites hit, a fire started.
In 2012, during Operation Pillar of Cloud, I used official IDF data and calculated a success rate of 25% of the antimissiles used. This was in contradiction to the 75% claimed by Hebrew media. In the linked articles I described the statistical manipulations used by the IDF.
More careful than then, the IDF is now reporting the success rate on a daily base. It is below 25%.
Day...............Launchings...Intercepts...Success Rate
Monday.........63...................11................17%
Tuesday........157.................29................18%
Wednesday...130.................24................18%
Thursday.......197.................44................22%
Friday............137.................27................20%
Saturday........124................10..................8%
A point to keep in mind is that the price of the launched rockets starts at $100 for cheap Kassam missiles. Every antimissile launching costs over $50,000.
In the following night, four soldiers from Shayetet 13, the IDF Naval Commando, were hurt while unsuccessfully trying to invade a Hamas launching base. They were taken to the hospital in Ashkelon, the most hit town on Saturday. On the Jewish Shabbat, Hamas launched its best rockets and shocked Israel.
© www.roitov.comJewish graves after funerals. The small stones denote visits.
Jewish funerals are tricky. The body must be buried within 24 hours. Unless the body was destroyed during the death, no coffin is used. After all, it has been said "all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again" (Ecclesiastes 3:20) much before Kansas changed it to "Dust in Wind."
After the body is buried, the grave is covered with earth. Only after a month a stone is placed.
What happens when a Red Code siren is heard during a funeral? Jews cannot delay it. On July 9, new procedures for the case of an emergency were published. The attendants must run to the closest one of the two protected areas in Jewish cemeteries, the Gniza room or the surrounding wall.
The people taking care of the body were instructed how to run with it to safe places. Handling corpses is a delicate task; it demands showing respect to the former fellow human while handling the now impure body.
On Wednesday, a burial in Yehud, near Tel Aviv, was carried under fire.
© article.wn.com"Knock on Roof" by Israeli Air Force in Gaza
On Saturday afternoon, Israel found itself on the defensive, with Netanyahu's government refusing to give the IDF the order to enter Gaza.
On Saturday night, army generals anonymously released announcements to the media. From the language used, it is safe to assume that the speaker was Lt. Gen. Gantz speaking without authorization of the Minister of Defense.
He announced that the "Knock on Roof" policy will be enlarged targeting entire neighborhoods, meaning that the IDF will expand its aerial strikes on civilian houses.
The policy, in which people in a house get an early warning before it is bombed, has been rejected by Hamas. I expanded regarding this policy's evils in Hamas Rejects Israel's "Knock on Roof" Policy.
The announced hits will take place in northern areas of the Gaza Strip, from where the long-range rockets were launched on Saturday.
© www.timesofisrael.comPalestinian families leave homes after Israeli warnings of airstrikes on Gaza.
He acknowledged that the IDF has attacked more than 1,300 targets in Gaza. He did not explain why people in Gaza do not have the right of self-defense.
A forced evacuation operation is about to start. The IDF will ask from people unrelated to the launchings to leave their homes.
On Sunday, Palestinians leaving their homes have been photographed by Hebrew media, despite Hamas having asked them not to abandon their homes as they did in 1948. Hamas is right. Once the neighborhoods are empty, IDF tanks will enter them and the infamous reinforced Caterpillar D9 bulldozers used by IDF sappers will flatten Northern Gaza. A weak Netanyahu, humiliated by whom his people like to call "two-legged-animals," may soon announce the Jewish settlement of New Ashkelon in northern Gaza. ๏ปฟIt is difficult not to read reports about the Hamas, especially their phrasings of events, and not recognize that they have learned carefully the Jewish militias. They speak like the Hagana, Etzel and Lehi in 1948. Now it is their turn for a brave Independence War. If Ben Gurion, Begin and Stern had right to oppose oppression, then every human on the planet has the same right.
During a war, harsh decisions must be taken. During a brutal attack of Goliath on the meek, impossible decisions must be taken. Hamas opted for an option minimizing the Israeli slaughter of the local population. "Defend your homes with your bodies so that your neighbors may be saved," may sound difficult, but it is a strategy that will save lives.
Shortly after Israel commemorated Holocaust Day, it is about to commit one. May God have mercy on its victims.
* Operation Strong Cliff articles:
English sources refer to it as Operation Protective Edge. The IDF Spokesman English announcements often accommodates names to the taste of American taxpayers, who graciously pay his activities. "Strong Cliff" is the direct translation of the Hebrew "Tzuk Eytan."
Comment: The IDF follows an aggressive combat doctrine based on two principles - "zero casualties" for IDF soldiers at the cost of deploying increasingly indiscriminate firepower in densely populated areas, and the "dahiya doctrine" promoting targeting of civilian infrastructure to create widespread suffering amongst the population with a view to foment opposition to Israel's opponents. This was confirmed in practice by the UN fact-finding mission in Gaza which concluded that the IDF had pursued a "deliberate policy of disproportionate force," aimed at the "supporting infrastructure" of the enemy - the civilian population.* Savvy of Israel to utilize blatant marketing tactics to describe their justification to eradicate defenseless Palestinian civilians and, by-the-way, garner American funding for one of the world's most sophisticated air forces to do so.
*paraphrased from a quote by Dr. Nafeez Ahmed, an international security journalist and academic.