Israeli officials have their hands on the Hamas rocket dial

Or did Hamas actually fire rockets on June 30?
However, uncertainty about exactly when Hamas rocket fire began is indicated in the July 1 ITIC weekly report:

During the operation the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip escalated their rocket fire into the western Negev (52 rocket hits have been identified since the beginning of the operation, not including the mortar shells and rockets that fell by mistake inside the Gaza Strip). The IDF responded with the targeted killing of terrorist operatives and by attacking more than 60 terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip. Most of the rockets were fired by rogue terrorist organizations, although in one instance (June 30, 2014), Hamas operatives were apparently involved.

On June 30, 2014, 12 rocket hits were identified. Some of them may have been fired by operatives of Hamas' military-terrorist wing. If Hamas was in fact responsible for rocket fire, it was the first time since Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012). (emphasis in original)

A June 30 article in The Times of Israel, "Hamas fires rockets for first time since 2012, Israeli officials say," explains why Hamas "probably launched" the rockets on June 30:

At least 16 rockets were fired at Israel Monday morning [June 30], most of them hitting open areas in the Eshkol region, the army said.

The security sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, assessed that Hamas had probably launched the barrage in revenge for an Israeli airstrike several hours earlier which killed one person and injured three more.

A member of Hamas's militant wing was killed in the attack, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said.

While Israel has maintained it holds Hamas responsible for all rocket attacks, officials have said that smaller groups, such as Islamic Jihad, are usually behind the rocket attacks, while Hamas squads generally attempt to thwart the rocket fire.

Hamas hasn't fired rockets into Israel since Operation Pillar of Defense ended in November 2012, and has yet to take responsibility for this latest barrage.

Israeli operations do not stop rocket fire; just the opposite
Israeli political and military leaders claim that their operations have been designed to stop rocket fire. For example, the Israeli Defense Force web site states:

On July 7, 2014, the IDF launched Operation Protective Edge in order to restore quiet to the region and stop Hamas terrorism. The single goal of the operation is to stop Hamas' incessant rocket attacks against Israel's civilians.

Here are the facts:

During the 40 days from May 1 to June 10, before Israeli forces launched Operation Brothers' Keeper, a weekly ITIC report shows that Israel was hit by a total of 3 rockets, an average of 0.07 rockets per day.

During the 18 days of Operation Brothers' Keeper, the ITIC reports that 52 rockets struck Israel, an average of 2.9 rockets per day.

However, in response to the Israeli onslaught on July 7 when Israeli forces killed the 6 Hamas members, rocket fire dramatically escalated: the ITIC reports that Israel was hit with 120 rockets on that single day.

On August 5 the Israeli government reported, "since the start of Operation Protective Edge [on July 7], at least 3,360 rockets have been launched at Israel." During those 28 days of the operation, that was an average of 120 rockets per day.

For comparison, during the 23 days of Operation Cast Lead, which lasted from December 27, 2008 until a cease-fire on January 18, 2009, the ITIC reports that 925 rockets hit Israel, and the average was 40.2 rocket hits per day. To get that operation going, Israeli forces had violated an effective cease-fire on November 4, 2008, entering Gaza and extra-judicially executing six members of Hamas, as reported in the New York Times. In the months before that violation, the cease-fire had brought rocket fire down to near zero, as reported by the ITIC.

Also, for comparison, the leap in rocket fire provoked by the November 2012 Israeli assault, Operation Pillar of Defense, was greater than occurred during Operation Cast Lead. During 2012 from January 1 until November 14, the date Operation Pillar of Defense began, the ITIC reports that Israel experienced 787 rocket hits-an average of 2.5 rocket hits per day. During the 8 days of Operation Pillar of Defense, 845 rockets hit Israel--an average of 105 rocket hits per day. Thus Israel was hit by 42 times as many rockets per day during Operation Pillar of Defense as were hitting Israel before its bombing of Gaza began. More than twice as many per day as even during Operation Cast Lead.

The cease fire that brought Operation Pillar of Defense to an end on November 20, 2012 was quite effective, bringing the average down to 0.09 rockets per day during the 13 months through the end of 2013, as derived from the numbers in a graph in the ITIC report .

Israeli officials have their hands on the rocket dial
These facts show that Israeli officials have control over the rocket fire dial: what works effectively to stop Hamas rocket fire is for Israeli forces to observe the cease-fire agreements the Israeli government signs. Conversely, Israeli government officials can provoke rocket fire by violating those cease fire agreements and launching lethal military operations on the West Bank and Gaza. What has been most effective to very dramatically dial up rocket fire is for Israeli forces to launch a massive military operation, as show in December 2008, in November 2012, and in July 2014.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).