In Photo: The house in Beersheba that took a direct hit
(Palinfo Twitter account, October 19, 2018)
Overview
On October 17, 2018, two rockets were launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip. One, with a
large warhead, hit a house in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba and caused
extensive damage. There were no casualties. The other rocket fell into the sea off the coast
of one of the cities in central Israel. So far it is unclear which organization launched the
rockets. Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), both of which have such rockets,
denied involvement. In response Israeli Air Force (IAF) aircraft attacked Hamas targets in the
Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli media, the Israeli government political-security cabinet
decided to intensify the IDF’s responses to events in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and the PIJ
threatened to intensify their attacks.
Despite the Israeli threat, the “return march” activities of Friday, October 19, 2018, were
held as usual. About 10,000 Gazans participated, who were requested by the organizers not
to approach the security fence. Therefore the level of clashes with IDF forces was
relatively lower than in recent weeks with the result that no Gazans were killed and
relatively fewer were wounded.
Israel’s political-security cabinet met in the wake of the rocket attacks. The Israeli media
reported that the cabinet had instructed the IDF to intensify its responses. Reinforcements
were deployed near the Gaza Strip border. Apparently that convinced Hamas to decrease
the violence of the “return march” activities on Friday (proving that Hamas can control
the rioters and the level of violence they employ).
Israel responded to the decrease in the violence by opening the Erez and Kerem Shalom
Crossings on the morning of October 21, 2018. The delivery of fuel to the Gaza Strip from
Qatar was postponed for the time being and the issue will be reexamined in a number of
days, depending on events on the ground.
To read more-https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/app/uploads/2018/10/E_252_18.pdf
