(IsraelNN.com) A total of 24 people are hospitalized, mostly for shock, following the firing of more than 30 rockets and mortar shells from Gaza on Israel on Thursday. Among them are two with shrapnel injuries.
Among the rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza on Israel on Thursday, eight long-range Grad rockets hit the coastal city of Ashkelon. The city's 100,000-plus rocket-besieged residents were told just last night (Wednesday) by Defense Minister Ehud Barak that there was no need to change the city's deployment plans.
The Katyusha-like were fired in several waves in the mid-afternoon hours. Two rockets slammed directly into residential homes, and shock victims were treated at the sites. One rocket landed at the northern entrance to town, and marks the longest-range hit to date.
At the same time, five Kassam rockets were being fired at Sderot and the western Negev. A 70-year-old woman in Sderot suffered shrapnel wounds; she is listed in light condition in Barzilai Hospital. Two rockets scored a direct hit on a hothouse, and the Thai workers inside were just barely able to escape unharmed.
Later in the day, eight more Kassam rockets were fired into Israel; four of them landed north and east of Gaza, and four landed in Ashkelon.
This is significant. Now that the Kassams are able to routinely strike Ashkelon the opportunity for a nationwide strike of rockets, missiles and bombs has become very realistic. To the east, once Israel has ethnically cleansed all the Jews from Judea and Samaria as a good will gesture to the moslems, the interior of Israel will likely be pounded by continuous rocket fire. With the north already in the line of fire from Hezbalon's artillary, and the West and south getting wiped away by Judenrein Gaza, it seems there's not much left anymore.
Israel is getting exactly what they have coming to them for putting Olmert and his leftist/arabist friends in office. If the people there are so disinterested in their own survival that they are willing to commit suicide so as not to be picked on by the vermin anymore, well, so be it. I can't get angry if they want to capitulate to the enemy and be bombed into submission. I'm very sad that they have chosen voluntary anhialation, yes, but how can I get angry at the dire situation when they care more about pleasing their enemy than saving themselves?
-MZ