Israellycool

 Courtesy of the palestinian Ramattan news site.

The Guardian today includes this “fact” in its coverage of Gaza:

The Qassam rockets are notoriously inaccurate - Hamas launched 28 yesterday and only 10 landed in Israel - but there are growing fears that the militants are acquiring an arsenal with a longer range.

Yesterday, according to YNet, “over 30” rockets landed in Israel, and 10 of them landed in Ashkelon alone. Haaretz counted 12 of them as being Grad rockets while the Israeli police counted 5.

Hamas alone claimed to fire 26 Qassam rockets in its many press releases yesterday, but I cannot find anywhere that Hamas lists which ones landed in Israel and which in Gaza.

There is a very small possibility that The Guardian’s reporter Toni O’Loughlin in Jerusalem managed to track how many rockets were from Hamas, how many from Fatah and Islamic Jihad and other groups, tracked them individually to see where each one landed, distinguished between Qassams and Grads, and counted exactly 28 Qassams from Hamas (two more than they claim) of which exactly 10 landed in Israel.

It is undoubtedly true that many Qassams land in Gaza and that there is always a discrepancy between the number claimed to have been fired by terror groups and the number that are known to have landed in Israel. A 3:1 ratio is absurd, though.

Far more likely is that O’Loughlin is, subconsciously or not, trying to minimize the Qassam threat to Israel and is reporting “facts” as inaccurate as s/he claims the Qassams are.

Palestinian Shifa al-Qudsi, 30, who was caught and jailed six years ago after planning to blow herself up at an Israeli beach hotel, fills out a form at the Prisoner Club offices in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. Just out of prison, the 30-year-old former hairdresser said she isn’t sorry for having plotted carnage among civilians, times were different then, she explained, but now hopes to meet ordinary Israelis to explain herself and help bridge the hostile divide between the two peoples. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

So let me get this straight. A woman so consumed by hatred for Israelis, who does not regret planning to blow up innocent civilians, now plans to “bridge the hostile divide between the two peoples” because “times were different then.” Besides the innate implausibility of such a position - how could someone who is still adamant that blowing up innocent people is fine want to meet up with these people and be “peacemaker” - why were times different then? Nothing has changed. The palestinians still view suicide bombings as legitimate resistance, and they are living under the same conditions if you believe their own news sources.

No, this is propaganda, pure and simple. And the AP is right there as usual, more than willing to help disseminate it.

Update: And if you still don’t believe me, this is what she said only half a year ago:

She has become “more political” and “closer to God” in prison, she says. She has also perfected her Hebrew. “We need to know the language of our enemy to better confront him, she said, a giggle softening the threat she is still determined to convey.

Would she discourage her daughter Diana from emulating her path towards martyrdom? I asked her. “I will teach her that education is the most important thing in life,” she replied. “But our children can be shot coming home from school. The best of our children become martyrs, whether or not they want to be. So if she wanted to do this, I wouldn’t try to stop her.”

The only bridges this woman wants to mend are those she would pass over on her way to perpetrating a suicide bombing.

Would you believe the Prime Minister’s Office? (hat tip: Backspin)

Well, technically, I guess it isn’t really a blog. But try telling that to the PMO.

Travel Diary - PM Visit to Japan

With Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s departure on a diplomatic visit to Japan, we have decided – for the first time – to post a blog on the Prime Minister’s Office website. The blog, written by personnel from the Prime Minister’s Bureau, will deal with the goals and objectives that we have set for the trip and with the meetings that Prime Minister Olmert will hold during his visit. The goal is allow those surfing the website to learn directly about the course of the visit and to obtain regular updates about its developments. For our part, this is another tool to increase the transparency of the Prime Minister’s activities in general and to reveal some of his wide-ranging diplomatic work. Upon the conclusion of the visit, as well as during its course, we would be pleased to receive comments about the blog and its contents.

Here is yet another example of why you should approach palestinian reports with suspicion:

Egyptian girl killed by Israeli fire near Gaza border

A thirteen-year-old Egyptian girl was killed by Israeli fire near the border with the Gaza Strip, local residents said.

Egyptian residents near the borders with the Gaza Strip said that Samah Abu Jarad received a gunshot to the head while she was playing in front of her family house, about 700 meters from the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Reuters quoted Egyptian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that investigations are underway to discover the source of the gunshot that killed the girl.

Sheikh Darweesh Abu Jarad, a prominent member of the girl’s family said the deadly gunshot was likely to have been fired from an Israeli monitoring tower, close to her home.

Israeli army sources also said the incident is being investigated.

In other words, despite the fact that the source of the gunfire is still unclear and is being investigated, Ma’an news are carrying a headline suggesting it is a forgone conclusion.

Al Dura anyone?

We might just have a large-scale Gaza operation, folks.

As Hamas drew Ashkelon into the circle of communities coming under heavy rocket attacks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and the Foreign Ministry on Thursday began preparing both Israeli and world opinion for the possibility of a large-scale incursion into Gaza.

Barak, during a series of meetings at the Defense Ministry, said, “We should be prepared for an upswing in hostilities in Gaza. The big ground operation is a reality and it is tangible. We are not eager to embark upon such an operation, but we are not put off by it either.”

According to defense sources, the goals of such an operation - reportedly in the planning stages for weeks if not months - would not “merely” be to reduce the threat of rocket fire and rocket manufacturing in the Gaza Strip, but would also likely entail paralyzing the Hamas government’s ability to operate, and even include “regime change.”

Barak spoke with Quartet envoy Tony Blair and Egyptian intelligence head Omar Suleiman and said Israel could not tolerate the current level of rocket fire in the South without offering a wider response.

Barak also offered hints as to his plans, telling local community leaders gathered at Sapir Academic College outside Sderot that “the solution to Kassams will be a lot quicker than many people think.”

And the Foreign Ministry, in talking points sent to its representatives abroad, instructed them to say that when Israel left the Gaza Strip in 2005 it did so without the intention of ever returning, but that the continuation of terrorist attacks was likely to place the country in a position where it may have no other choice.

The ministry also instructed its representatives to reveal that the Grad missiles that were fired at Ashkelon on Thursday were smuggled through Sinai from Iran.

According to one diplomatic source, stressing the Iranian origin of the missiles showed the importance of aggressive action to stop the smuggling and isolate Hamas from Syria and Iran, which “directs the organization’s terrorist actions.”

“We have warned for a while about the arming of Hamas, and what is happening now is proof of this,” the official said.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni also seemed to be preparing the world for stepped up Israeli action, telling visiting Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas that the international community should “respect” all actions that Israel takes to protects its citizens.

Livni said Israel rejected condemnations and arguments that there were casualties on both sides of the fence, saying “there is no moral equivalence between terrorists and those fighting them, even if during those actions innocent civilians are accidentally killed. In these cases the world should not come to us - there is only one address for the Palestinian situation in Gaza and for what is likely to happen there in the future - and it is Hamas.”

Foreign Minister director-general Aaron Abramovich traveled to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit about the situation on the Egyptian-Gaza border.

Government officials said that while Abramovich wanted to concentrate on how to combat the arms smuggling across and under the Philadelphi Corridor, Gheit was more interested in talking about how to get the Rafah crossing re-opened. The talks came in preparation for a high level discussion on the situation on the border excepted early next week with the arrival on Tuesday of both US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Suleiman.

In light of the recent tension with Egypt over the situation on the border, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying the Israeli delegation “stressed the strategic importance of the relationship between Israel and Egypt, in enhancing and addressing challenges to peace in the region and promoting peaceful coexistence.”

In a related development, government officials said Israel was not getting “too excited” over an interview Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gave to a Jordanian newspaper that appeared Thursday saying he did not rule out returning to the path of armed “resistance” against Israel.

The official said these comments were aimed at Abbas’s domestic audience and that Abbas should be judged by his deeds - a willingness to negotiate peace - rather than by statements “meant for internal consumption.

In an interview with Al-Dustur, Abbas also took pride that he had been the first to fire a bullet on Israel in 1965 and that his organization, Fatah, had trained Hizbullah. “At this present juncture, I am opposed to armed struggle because we cannot succeed in it, but maybe in the future things will be different,” he said.

Despite talk of an operation, the palestinians are continuing their Qassam-firing ways. The question is are they slow-learners, or do they actually want an invasion?

Meanwhile, palestinians have reported an IAF strike on the Gaza home of a Popular Resistance Committees leader. If this did occur, I am not sure what Israel was trying to achieve, besides sending a message to the terrorists. But given the IDF has not confirmed the strike, and the general reliability of palestinian sources, I am not convinced this in fact occurred.

In other news, Hamas are continuing their propaganda war, and the IDF arrested 6 terror suspects overnight.

Updates (Israel time):

12:10PM: In another possible indication of an imminent large-scale Israeli operation in Gaza, Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman has postponed his upcoming trip to Israel, planned for the middle of next week.

12:18PM: A Qassam rocket has scored a direct hit on a Sderot home, with several residents in shock.

1:30PM: Revealing words from a Hamas terrorist:

Hamas and the residents of Gaza closely followed reports of IDF forces assembling in and around the Strip ahead of a possible large-scale ground operation.

An Islamist group source confirmed that the organization was gearing up for battle. “The Israelis will flounder in Gaza as they did in Lebanon and at the end of the process they will once again be defeated and leave,” he told Ynet on Friday.

“We will not play into Israel’s hands. If and when the operation is launched, we will combat it with no more than 20 percent of our manpower. The remaining 80 percent will wait for the Israelis inside Palestinian territory to fight under the conditions that we are familiar with and to show that are forces are still there – in case Israel is thinking of bringing in the leadership it supports, such as (Palestinian President Mahmoud) Abbas,” he said.

What this should show you:

1. The palestinians view unilateral withdrawals (such as from Lebanon) as Israeli defeats.

2. These perceived “defeats” have given them confidence.

3. They enjoy mainly fighting the IDF “inside Palestinian territory.. under the conditions that [they] are familiar with.” In other words, around civilian populations.

1:53PM: The IDF have reportedly fired missiles at a Qassam rocket launching cell near Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

2:05PM: According to palestinian sources, the IAF has fired at open areas in the northern Gaza Strip.

2:40PM: “Tens of thousands” of palestinians have reportedly participated in a Hamas-organized rally in the Gaza Strip in protest of the ongoing IDF strikes in the enclave.

Of course, you never hear of such rallies in protest of terrorist attacks against Israel. I guess they are too busy passing out or eating candy.

2:52PM:  5 Gazans have been wounded in a “Qassam work accident.”

Here’s something interesting that escaped my radar a number of weeks ago.

It looks like tennis superstar Maria Sharapova didn’t really mind the grunts emanating from the Ramat Hasharon audience (see here for what they mean - ed.). It even seems that she plans on returning to Israel soon.

In a secret transaction sighed last week, the Australian Open tennis champion bought a luxury penthouse in the Ir Yamim project, south of Netanya, for NIS 7.5 million.

At the complex, the Russian-born tennis player - who in principle lives in the United States - will enjoy a swimming pool, a luxurious lobby, a gym, and other amenities. The penthouse itself includes 350 square meters of floor space, with three balconies that offer a panoramic view to the Mediterranean Sea, as well as a 350-square-meter rooftop with permits to construct a swimming pool.

Good on her. Especially considering there are plenty of wealthy Jews who won’t bother investing here.

A Palestinian man is helped by other men after seeing the bodies of four Palestinian youths at the morgue in Kamal Edwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a Health Ministry official, said the four victims were civilians under the age of 16.

You may have noticed that the palestinian man “being helped” has Hebrew writing on his t-shirt. I can confirm that this is a Mafdal t-shirt, Mafdal being a right-wing, religious Zionist Israeli political party.

Update: Our gardner hires Arab workers, and my wife tells me one of them wears such a T-shirt. When she asked him whether he knew what it meant, he replied in the affirmative, saying he liked to bring a smile to his Jewish clients.

My wife is asleep right now. I hope when she sees this post in the morning, she won’t point to it and say “That’s our gardner’s worker!”

Update: Mrs Aussie Dave confirms it is not him.

Yesterday, UN envoy Robert Serry gave a report to the UN Security Council. As can be expected, most of the report was more of the same - blaming Israel for how it is dealing with Gaza, blaming settlements for creating a humanitarian crisis (not quite sure how that works), claiming that Israel has not removed any outposts (um, remember Amona? Neve Daniel North? Tapuach West?) and similar naive statements.

As usual, he has no real idea about what Israel should do, only what it should not do:

A different and more positive strategy for Gaza was a humanitarian, security and strategic imperative, for Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority.

Any idea what this strategy should be? Well, nothing that can possibly involve the remotest possibility of hurting civilians, of course, so possibly he is calling for Israel to move from “condemning” Qassam attacks into “deploring” them. Perhaps providing them with more potassium nitrate so they can fertilize their crops.

Buried in his speech, however, is something that I have never seen the UN say before:

His visit to Sderot, which had been the target of over 4,300 rockets since 2004, had brought out the physical and psychological damage to the population. Those crude rockets were aimed at hurting civilians and clearly constituted terrorism. Their continued firing was completely unacceptable and must be halted unconditionally.

The “T word” is hardly used even in the Western media to describe Qassams, with sickening words like “resistance” used far more often. The fact that the reliably anti-Israel UN classifies rocket attacks as terrorism needs to be publicized and the Arab terrorists and their friends need to be forced to respond, so that the world can see their hypocrisy.

This morning, the IAF killed another 5 terrorists - 2 from the Popular Resistance Committee, one from Hamas, one from the Abu Mustafa Brigades, and one from Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The palestinians certainly have no shortage of terrorist groups.

Meanwhile, the terrorists have continued with their targeting of innocent civilians, firing a number of Qassams into Israel, with one wounding an officer belonging to Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter’s protection detail.

I will attempt to keep you updated during the day.

Updates (Israel time)

11:16AM: Ha’aretz reports we turned 7 (not 5) terrorists into worm food. The more, the better.

11:48AM: Pay special attention to this, folks:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that while he opposes taking up armed struggle against Israel at the present time, he would not rule out the option for the future.

“I do not support a return to armed struggle at this point in time. But, at a later date, this could be an option for the Palestinian people,” Abbas said on Thursday during an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Duster.

Of course, this is not entirely true: he does support “armed struggle at this point in time”, considering that Fatah’s very own Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are constantly perpetrating terrorist attacks.

12:53PM: Students from Sderot’s Sapir College have lit memorial candles for yesterday’s victim, father-of-four Roni Yechiya. What’s the bet Reuters, AP and AFP do not publish these candle pictures?

2:27PM: A 70-year old woman has suffered light shrapnel injuries after a Qassam hit Sderot. Remember, the palestinians are trying to kill people like her.

3:10PM: 3 Qassams have been fired at Ashkelon, with one scoring a direct hit on a house and several people suffering from shock.

3:47PM: It turns out they were 5 Grad-type missiles that hit Ashkelon.

4:00PM: The IDF has stated that Hamas will have an unlimited supply of rockets targeting Ashkelon by the end of the year.

4:05PM: Something else likely not to be reported by the MSM:

The funeral procession for Roni Yechiya, a 47-year-old father of four killed in a Qassam attack in Sderot on Wednesday, has gotten underway in the community of Bitcha near Ofakim.

During the procession, Yechiyah’s wife screamed out: “Roni, you left me at such a young age, how will I manage without you? I love you.”

4:13PM: We have reportedly wounded 3 more Hamas terrorists.

So let’s briefly review yesterday’s events. Israel preemptively killed some Hamas terrorists planning a terrorist attack against innocent civilians. Hamas responded by targeting innocent civilians, hitting near a school and a hospital (amongst other things), resulting in the death of a father-of-four. Israel responded by targeting Hamas’ interior ministry, resulting in the indvertent death of a baby (due to the fact that Hamas deliberately placed its ministry in a residential neighborhood).

So how does ABC Australia decide to report the day’s events?

Baby killed in Israeli missile strike: hospital

Which makes me wonder why David Hardaker had to find a new job. I’d have thought he would be promoted.

Update: ABC Australia are not alone.

At least one Israeli has been killed, and several others wounded after palestinians fired as least 30 Qassam rockets into Sderot and surrounding communities.

The dead man was a 30-year-old student in his car, who suffered lethal shrapnel wounds to the chest after a Qassam hit Sapir College.

The deadly barrage came hours after the IAF killed five Hamas terrorists apparently planning a large scale terrorist attack against Israel after having been trained in Iran.

Updates (Israel time)

6:08PM: Infolive.tv reports that the dead man was a student in his twenties.

6:18PM: The last person to be killed by a Qassam was Oshri Oz, who was also killed when a rocket landed near his car.

6:22PM: About 10 minutes ago, 4 Qassams landed in Ashkelon, including one which landed in the Barzilai hospital grounds. No injuries have been reported, but several people have reportedly been treated for shock.

6:27PM: Now reports that one man was lightly wounded in the Ashkelon attack.

6:35PM: Today’s Euphemism of the day is courtesy of the palestinian WAFA agency:

Israeli air strikes killed on Wednesday at least five citizens in the Gaza Strip city of Khanyounis, medical sources said.

They added that Israeli warplanes targeted a van, killing instantly five citizens and wounding others, some seriously. Nasser hospital reported that the bodies were torn into pieces.

Earlier, in a separate air attack, a citizen was killed east of al- Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

They are, of course, referring to the Hamas terrorists.

6:46PM: Prime Minister Olmert: “No one in Hamas, not the low-level officials nor the highest echelon, will be immune against this war.”

6:48PM: 2 more Qassams, bringing today’s total so far to 42.

Of course, people like John Dugard, independent investigator on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for the UN Human Rights Council, will tell you it’s not really terrorism.

7:05PM: Judging by this picture and caption, the wounded includes Arabs.

A wounded woman is taken for treatment after a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza, landed in the Sapir college near the southern Israeli town of Sderot Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. A Palestinian rocket slammed into the college campus in southern Israel on Wednesday, killing one man and lightly wounding a second person, Israeli medical officials said, in a sign of a possible escalation in the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas. The Islamic militant Hamas militant, which controls Gaza, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire. It said it had launched more than 20 rockets at Israel, including eight at Sderot. (AP Photo / Tsafrir Abayov)

8:47PM: Contrary to earlier reports, the victim was not a 30-year-old, nor a twenty something, but rather a 47-year-old father of four.

9:05PM: More on the victim:

The victim, Ronnie Yechiya, 47, reportedly died shortly after sustaining massive wounds to his chest.

Yechiya, a father of four from the community of Bitcha near Ofakim, underwent a kidney transplant operation in the United States five years ago.

9:25PM: Yesterday,Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal had this to say at a protest tent he had established in a corner of Tel Aviv’s Kikar Rabin.

“The State of Israel has lost its dignity. Yes, countries have dignity, too. Any country that allows its sovereignty to be violated 50 times a day will eventually wither and fall.”

These words resonate even stronger today.

10:25PM: Israellycool friend and reader Noah has drawn my attention to this great article by Brett Stephens of the Wall Street Journal (formerly of the Jerusalem Post).

The Israeli town of Sderot lies less than a mile from the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the intifada seven years ago, it has borne the brunt of some 2,500 Kassam rockets fired from Gaza by Palestinian terrorists. Only about a dozen of these Kassams have proved lethal, though earlier this month brothers Osher and Rami Twito were seriously injured by one as they walked down a Sderot street on a Saturday evening. Eight-year-old Osher lost a leg.

It is no stretch to say that life in Sderot has become unendurable. Palestinians and their chorus of supporters — including the 118 countries of the so-called Non-Aligned Movement, much of Europe, and the panoply of international aid organizations from the World Bank to the United Nations — typically reply that life in the Gaza Strip is also unendurable, and that Palestinian casualties greatly exceed Israeli ones. But this argument is fatuous: Conditions in Gaza, in so far as they are shaped by Israel, are a function of conditions in Sderot. No Palestinian Kassams (or other forms of terrorism), no Israeli “siege.”
[The Sderot Calculus]

The more vexing question, both morally and strategically, is what Israel ought to do about Gaza. The standard answer is that Israel’s response to the Kassams ought to be “proportionate.” What does that mean? Does the “proportion” apply to the intention of those firing the Kassams — to wit, indiscriminate terror against civilian populations? In that case, a “proportionate” Israeli response would involve, perhaps, firing 2,500 artillery shells at random against civilian targets in Gaza. Or should proportion apply to the effects of the Kassams — an exquisitely calibrated, eye-for-eye operation involving the killing of a dozen Palestinians and the deliberate maiming or traumatizing of several hundred more?

Surely this isn’t what advocates of proportion have in mind. What they really mean is that Israel ought to respond with moderation. But the criteria for moderation are subjective. Should Israel pick off Hamas leaders who are ordering the rocket attacks? The European Parliament last week passed a resolution denouncing the practice of targeted assassinations. Should Israel adopt purely economic measures to punish Hamas for the Kassams? The same resolution denounced what it called Israel’s “collective punishment” of Palestinians. Should Israel seek to dismantle the Kassams through limited military incursions? This, too, has the unpardonable effect of resulting in too many Palestinian casualties, which are said to be “disproportionate” to the number of Israelis injured by the Kassams.

By these lights, Israel’s presumptive right to self-defense has no practical application as far as Gaza is concerned. Instead, Israel is counseled to allow goods to flow freely into the Strip, and to negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas.

But here another set of considerations intrudes. Hamas was elected democratically and by overwhelming margins in Gaza. It has never once honored a cease-fire with Israel. Following Israel’s withdrawal of its soldiers and settlements from the Strip in 2005 there was a six-fold increase in the number of Kassam strikes on Israel.

Hamas has also made no effort to rewrite its 1988 charter, which calls for Israel’s destruction. The charter is explicitly anti-Semitic: “The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” (Article Seven) “In order to face the usurpation of Palestine by the Jews, we have no escape from raising the banner of Jihad.” (Article 15) And so on.

It would seem perverse for Israeli taxpayers, including residents of Sderot, to feed the mouth that bites them. It would seem equally perverse for Israel merely to bide its time for an especially unlucky day — a Kassam hitting a busload of schoolchildren, for instance — before striking hard at Gaza. But unless Israel is willing to accept the military, political and diplomatic burdens of occupying all or parts of Gaza indefinitely, the effects of a major military incursion could be relatively short-lived. Israel suffered many more casualties before it withdrew from the Strip than it has since.

Perhaps the answer is to wait for a technological fix and, in the meantime, hope for the best. Israel is at work on a missile-defense program called “Iron Dome” that may be effective against Kassams, though the system won’t be in place for at least two years. It could also purchase land-based models of the Phalanx Close-In Weapons System, used by the U.S. to defend the Green Zone in Baghdad.

But technology addresses neither the Islamic fanaticism that animates Hamas nor the moral torpor of Western policy makers and commentators who, on balance, find more to blame in Israel’s behavior than in Hamas’s. Nor, too, would an Iron Dome or the Phalanx absolve the Israeli government from the necessity of punishing those who seek its destruction. Prudence is an important consideration of statesmanship, but self-respect is vital. And no self-respecting nation can allow the situation in Sderot to continue much longer, a point it is in every civilized country’s interest to understand.

On March 9, 1916, Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked the border town of Columbus, N.M., killing 18 Americans. President Woodrow Wilson ordered Gen. John J. Pershing and 10,000 soldiers into Mexico for nearly a year to hunt Villa down, in what was explicitly called a “punitive expedition.” Pershing never found Villa, making the effort something of a failure. Then again, Villa’s raid would be the last significant foreign attack on continental U.S. soil for 85 years, six months and two days.

11:03PM: Hamas have reportedly claimed that the IAF bombed the Gaza Interior Ministry building.

11:15PM: Further to the last update:

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh also holds the post of Interior Minister although he was not in the building at the time of the attack.

Let me guess. He was out playing soccer?