Hamas
As the communities in southern Israel are bombarded with rockets and incendiary devices, President Reuvlen Rivlin opens his official residence to citizens under fire.
“We are trying to locate and kill terror operatives wherever they are,” says Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.
The U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting that resulted in no action as tensions escalated in Jerusalem and rockets fell on Israel from Hamas in Gaza.
“The world needs to clearly and unambiguously recognize the nature and aims of Palestinian terrorist organizations, and specifically, their desire to wipe Israel off the map,” said American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris.
“Terror organizations in Gaza crossed a red line and attacked us with missiles at the entrance to Jerusalem. Those who attack us will pay a heavy price,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After being denied the opportunity for a new power grab through now-canceled elections in the West Bank, Hamas has changed course for an aggressive assault on Israeli civilians and to secure its image as “the defender of Jerusalem.”
Ongoing violence in Jerusalem and Gaza must stop,” tweeted British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab • European Union’s Ambassador to Israel Emanuele Giaufret was “extremely concerned.”
Dan Diker of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs says the current riots are a direct result of the Palestinian leadership’s declaration that “the Al-Aqsa is in danger,” which has served as a battle cry against the Jews for the past 100 years.
This is the first time rockets have been launched towards Jerusalem from Gaza since “Operation Protective Edge” in the summer of 2014.
The retaliatory action comes on the heels of a similar incident and a renewal of incendiary balloon attacks from the terrorist-run enclave.
“Terror has consequences,” stresses the Israel Defense Forces, as riots continued along the southern border fence and in Jerusalem.
Hamas’s aspiration following its forceful 2007 takeover of Gaza is to seize the institutions of the P.A. and the PLO in the West Bank, “thereby achieving total hegemony on the Palestinian arena,” said Professor Boaz Ganor of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Herzliya.
