Thursday, June 16, 2011

Gazans shoot rocket into Israel, ending lull


Thursday, June 16, 2011

Qassam rocket (archives)) Photo: Ze'ev Trachtman

ELDER OF ZIYON

From YNet:
A Qassam rocket exploded Thursday evening in an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council.

No injuries or damage were reported in the strike, the first of its kind in southern Israel in recent weeks.

Shortly before 9:30 pm, the Color Red rocket alert system was activated in region. A few moments later, an explosion was heard in the area.

"From the eve of Passover until today we had a calm period that we are not familiar with by any standard," Eshkol Regional Council head Haim Yalin told Ynet. "We are not surprised that the lull ended, we're surprised by a month an a half of quiet. Qassam fire is not an unusual thing, because we know who's living on the other side,"
While it was an unprecedented period of calm, it is not true that no Palestinian Arabs fired rockets to Israel - just that they didn't succeed.

Between May 22 and June 4, one mortar and three rockets were fired. The mortar and one of the rockets fell short, and two other rockets were shot into the sea as experiments.

On May 19th, another rocket fell short.

Again, this is much better than in any previous "lull." Even during the supposed Hamas cease fire in the months before Cast Lead - the one that Israel bashers never fail to say that Israel broke in November 2008 - there were rockets every month.