Updates below

Yet another terror attack yesterday, with palestinians in Gaza firing an Iranian-made Grad rocket at Ashkelon, hitting a shopping mall at a busy time of the day. 15 people were injured, with 4 in serious condition, including a 24-year-old woman and her infant daughter. In addition, 87 people were treated for shock.

Ashkelon is a city of 120,000, and about 45 minutes from where I live. In fact, the Aussie Dave family was in Ashkelon for a day during last month’s Passover vacation, and a day before Qassams hit the southern part of the city.

Palestinians would have been hoping for mass casualties. And sure enough, at the time of the attack, hundreds of people were in the mall. To compound matters, the alarm meant to warn of incoming missiles did not work. However, by the grace of G-d, more people were not hurt.

As is usually the case with terror attacks, multiple palestinian terror groups have claimed responsibility.

The Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for the group, Abu Abir, told Ynet: “This attack was intended as a message to Israel that if it continues to escalate the situation and reject the ceasefire proposal, Zionist residents of southern Palestine will continue to live under danger of mortal peril and this will be their own government’s responsibility.”

The attack, said Abu Abir, was dedicated to Palestinian refugees marking 60 years since the ‘Nakba.’ “We promise Palestinian refugees scattered all over the world – you will return to your homes that were robbed from Palestine in 1948,” he said.

The Jihad Jibril brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, have also claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two terror groups, two different justifications. At the end of the day, palestinian terrorists do not want to live alongside a Jewish state, but supplant it. And the more Jews killed in the process, the better.

Meanwhile, the government stated its commitment to stopping such attacks. But besides a routine air strike against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, the lodging of a formal complaint with the UN, and an invitation by Defense Minister Ehud Barak for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to accompany him on a tour of the scene of the attack (she declined), it again seems to be a matter of all talk and no action.

Updates (Perth, Australia time)

11:00AM: Elder draws attention to an article in which palestinian terrorists claim Israel fired the rocket to garner sympathy during George Bush’s visit.

Informed sources in the Palestinian resistance said that the resistance had not fired a Palestinian rocket at the shopping center in Ashkelon. The source who refused to reveal his name said that the Israeli game is to enlist worldwide support and an omen of imminent invasion of Gaza outline Zionist Israel exists and create the world public opinion. For Kasaba, the source added that this drama it made up for Israel earn the approval of Bush’s interests are not obvious to one of the Palestinian people at the same time stressing that the Palestinians had not fired any missiles at Ashkelon, warning data intriguers to adopt practical Palestinians until there is no excuse from the occupation to commit new massacres against the Palestinian people.

It is worth mentioning that Al-Quds Brigades have denied any missile launched at Ashkelon today as did Nasser Salah al-Din Brigades.

Sounds very much like the recent Hamas claims that Zionists planned the Holocaust.

12:33PM: A clarification. Above, I posted that the alarm did not work. Actually, it has been deactivated due to five cases of false alarms in the past month, which led to panic.

Needless to say, it has now been reactivated.

12:40PM: A senior defense source has stated that Israel is on a collision course with Hamas.

More like Hamas rockets, since we are not really doing anything to diffuse the threat.

1:55PM: 10 of the injured remain hospitalized in the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

You know, the scene of this story.

2:50PM: CNN have buried the attack in a report entitled: Israelis, Palestinians clash as Bush arrives in Israel

The report starts with this paragraph mentioning the deaths of palestinians :

Israelis and Palestinians clashed in Gaza, killing four Palestinians including a teen, as President Bush arrived Wednesday in Israel to prod the oft-stalled Mideast peace process.

You then have to wait until the fifth paragraph to read about the attack, which is mentioned almost as an aside:

The talks, which Bush lauds as the path to an independent Palestinian state, are “largely secret,” National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters en route to the Middle East, but negotiations are moving forward.

“There is less known about them publicly than is going on,” Hadley said. “The issues are hard. And the process goes forward, and obviously the president is going to try and give some impetus to that process in the conversations he is having on his trip.”

Hadley added, “One of the things he needs to do is rally the support of the Arab world behind both Israeli and the Palestinian leadership so that they will support whatever is negotiated between the two sides.” Key players »

As those conversations were happening, a rocket hit a shopping mall center in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, wounding at least 14 people, including a mother and an infant, the Israeli military and emergency officials said.

12 thoughts on “Ashkelon Struck”

  1. Tell the UN to fix it now or you will evict everyone within 5km of the border from their homes and bulldoze the entire area.

  2. The alarm didn’t work? It was TURNED OFF. Who is worse, the murderous terrorists trying to kill us with rockets, or our murderously uncaring and incompetent government?

  3. As long as Bush is president, any gains made by Israel, on the ground, with foot soldiers, will be handed off to Abbas.

    Again, because this is such an important point. Bush would love the IDF to bring “presents” to Abbas.

    So far, Americans have learned a big truth about Irak. We don’t like being there. (Any more than Israelis liked being IN Lebanon.)

    It’s perhaps time to recognize that the way fighting will proceed will change. (While oil is still the world’s best currency; because technology depends on it!)

    The other question? Can Hamas unleash the horrors of the Intifada? Where people couldn’t use public transportation, without worrying about exploding monsters.

    You know, you’ll get into your cars to drive, even though there’s an element to driving, especially where other drivers are concerned; that makes driving hazardous.

    With these missiles from gaza?

    From the sea and the air, gaza can be demolished. But if that were to happen? Jews would be seen as savages.

    So, I’ll guess that what’s ahead is a slow process. With the IDF and Shin Bet locating a few terrorists at a time, and canceling their tickets.

    Anything else? And the sheiks in Riyadh get happy. Israel does the heavy lifting, and the rewards go to Abbas. Which is the same thing as watching Saniora, now.

    Lebanon remains viable only because they produce the best hashhish in the world. Which is the reason a mafia organization like Assad’s, works.

    The UN, meanwhile, is a joke. 140 dictatorships. And, rampant anti-semitism. No cures in sight.

  4. Ah, sorry. I was looking for something like “Israeli mall hit by Terrorists’ Iranian rocket, dozens wounded”

    I forgot that we’re “clashing.”

  5. Actually, after the bombing we checked all of the international news channels and I can say that at least within the first two hours of the attack, I didn’t see anything on any of the channels. Also left out of the news article that you posted was the fact that the main area that was hit in the mall was upstairs in the Clalit health care clinic where the hardest hit section was the children’s clinic which is why there were a few children who were listed as seriously injured including a physician.
    I was on my way home from work when I first saw the smoke from Ashkelon, and the first thing that I remarked to my brother in law (with me at the time) was that it could be a qassam. It’s constantly on my mind as my daughter goes to school in Ashkelon and the rockets have already landed in the area of the school. We worry constantly.I live 5 minutes from this mall – you can’t imagine the amount of sirens that flew by my moshav well into the first hour after the bombing. I truly hope that this govt. will start moving their asses and do the right thing – although I already know that they won’t.

  6. If I mention that it wasn’t a Qassam, but a Grad rocket, I’m not nitpicking. It’s important, because the international media portrays Qassams as nuisances. That’s far from the truth, but Grad rockets are military hardware with greater range and destructive power. Even our “friends” in the media admit that Iran supplies these rockets to the various Palestinian terrorist groups.

  7. dumbledoresarmy

    This is dreadful – I will pray for the swift recovery of the wounded, especially the mother and her little girl.

    It drives me C.R.A.Z.Y to see this happen to Israel right after the jihadis bombed a crowded market in India, while NO-ONE in the mainstream media seems to realize that 1. a jihadi Grad rocket from jihad Fortress Gaza hitting Israeli shopping centre and hurting lots of innocent Jewish civilians and 2. jihadi bombs set off by Bangladeshi or Pakistani-sponsored Muslim assassins and killing 80+ innocent HIndu and Sikh civilians [including one beautiful young bride in her sari] are both driven by the *same* ideology, to wit, Quran-Sira-Hadith, and are part of precisely the same campaign, that is, the Third Great Jihad against all non-Muslims everywhere, its final mad goal being Islam, Islam uber alles.

    Both India and Israel are right at the top of the To-Do list for disgruntled jihadis who simply will not accept that sometimes stolen goods (Indian land; Jewish land) get taken right back from the thieves (Muslim imperialists) by the rightful owners (Hindu & Sikh Indians in the case of India; Jews, in the case of Eretz Israel).

  8. Rockets landing in Israel is not news. It is a completely acceptable situation. I cannot fault the press on this. If it is an acceptable situation to the Olmert government, why should the press consider it any differently?

    Stan

  9. Not “new.” And, also not acceptable.

    However, you also have to know that besides the diplomatic pants dancing, both the Shin Bet and the Mossad are active. And, when they do what they have to do, there’s no news, either.

    And, I really do believe that the ways things were fought in the past? Will be no more. No more heavy concentrations of foot soldiers. No more “taking ground” and then hopibg the natives “like ya.”

    Sometimes, if you just stand back, you’ll see it. For Americans, Vietnam’s loss was generally thought to be “journalism’s last stand.” While today? Believe it or not, but in Vietnam CHINA is the enemy! And, the Chinese are feared. While any connection to America is being sought out. I kid you not.

    From Lebanon, however? No such luck. The Lebanese circle the drain, and they still hate Israel.

    So, I’ll guess that the future of wars has changed. And, those with the best technologies have an advantage. Until we “run out of oil.” And, then? Back to the pitch forks.

    It’s also entirely possible that Bush is in trouble at home, with the lowest poll numbers EVER! And, a GOP that’s suffering legislative losses … And, all because he’s been seen as embracing Jews?

    I think his speech to the Knesset was on target. Drudge has it up “above the fold” and in the center of his page.

    What is it about numbers? Because just having a lot of crazy people who wave their banners around, isn’t what makes environments threatening. For hitler? It wasn’t the speech. It was the fact that he was able to build ovens, and then he got away with it.

    Where did germany lose? Try this. They once held a position of being the “center” of the philosophical universe. But it’s been a downhill trip. One where for the 20th Century, Einstein rules.

    And, Israel survives.

    If I had to guess? France disappears first.

    While the arabs will never change. As to the persians? Well, the ancient greeks had no respect for them. And, right now? After iran deposed it’s shah, things went from bad to worse.

    Maybe, not only have the way wars will be done undergone change. So have paper-signing ceremonies?

    Of course, it’s the oil that keeps Riyadh afloat. Still, considering the amounts they took in, what do they really have to show for it? In other words, when you mis-spend your “yarisha” … you end up with bupkis. Like the Romans. And, other viscious entities. Time’s not kind to dictatorships. And, we’re only privy to a small portion in terms of time.

    For some reason, I think Ehud Barak knows what he’s doing.

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