SATURDAY, AUGUST 20, 2011
20-Aug-11: Southern Israel under major bombardment, ongoing death and injuries; foreign mainstream media yawn
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Click here to see the entire front page of the NYT online edition as of 2.30pm Saturday 20-Aug-11 |
Outside Israel, the approach taken by the mainstream media to the barrages that have terrorized hundreds of thousands of Israeli can be summed up by a quick look at one of the world's major sources of news. At the top of this blog, you can view a snapshot of the front page of the online edition of the New York Times. We offer this as a kind of proxy for the mainstream media. You will not find a single word on that page referring to what we describe here.
The incessant terrorist barrage of rockets and mortars caused death, injuries and fear across a broad swathe of southern Israel today. Here is part of what the jihadists "achieved" during the last 24 hours of Sabbath while we were off-line.
- Around 4 am Saturday morning, two rockets crashed into an open area in the western Negev close to the Eshkol region. No injuries or damage were reported.
- Hamas put out another of its characteristic public statements pretending to have emerged from its peace-loving posture and resorting, against its better judgement and peace-loving nature etc etc etc, to rocket fire against Israelis because they have no other choice.
- Ashdod:: Two rockets landed on the outskirts of the embattled city around 6 am. Three people – identified by Ynet as illegal Palestinian workers – suffered mild to serious injuries and were treated to the best of Israeli emergency medicine at Rehovot's Kaplan Medical Center.
- 8:30 am, a Gazan rocket hit the Be'er Tuvia area (Tel Aviv suburbs) for the second time in 24 hours. Fortunately no injuries are reported.
- Beer Sheba - a rocket exploded around 9 am, injuring one person directly, and causing injuries to seven others while running to find shelter.
- Noon - two Gazan rockets crashed into the Lachish region.
- Early afternoon - rockets hit Qiryat Gat and Gan Yavne (close to Ashdod, in Tel Aviv's southern suburbs). A mortar shell exploded in the grounds of one of the kibbutzim in the area, causing one person to suffer shock as well as property damage.
- Mid-afternoon Saturday, four mortar shells were fired into the Sha'ar Hanegev region. (The exact locations are routinely omitted from the news reports so as to withhold potentially valuable feedback from the terrorists.)
- Seven more shells landed in open spaces in southern Israel by early evening.
- Early Saturday evening: a Gazan rocket exploded on a section of Highway 35 between Ashkelon and Qiryat Gat, damaging it severely. No injuries were reported. The authorities have closed the area to all traffic.
- Also early evening, a Gazan rocket headed for Ashkelon was destroyed in mid-air by an Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile rocket.
- Around 7:40pm Saturday night, two more Gazan rockets (according to an IDF report) struck and damaged the Erez Crossing, the pedestrian/cargo terminal on the Israeli Gaza Strip border located at the northern end of the Gaza Strip. We wonder how long before 'humanitarian' organizations renew their calls for Israel to do everything in its power to allow goods and people to pass through the crossing point again.
- Mid-evening, the intensity has picked up. In Ofakim, a house tookm a direct hit around 8:30 tonight. The home itself was unoccupied but several pedestrians are injured including a four-month-old baby, a nine-year-old child and a young man. All are being treated at Soroka hospital in Beer Sheba.
- At about the same time, a Beer Sheba home took a direct hit from an incoming GRAD missile. According to Israel's Channel Two news which we are watching now, one person was killed and at least 10 others were hurt, of whom four are in serious condition. Haaretz says the so-called Popular Resistance Committees took credit for the attack.
- At about the same time, a private vehicle took a direct hit from another PRC GRAD missile (according to Haaretz) in Beer Sheba and is on fire.
