After days of rocket fire that saw more than 140 projectiles launched at Israel from Gaza since last Thursday, an uneasy ceasefire appeared to take effect as of Tuesday afternoon. The ceasefire had been reported earlier, but multiple rocket launchings had shattered the planned silence. As of Tuesday afternoon, the last rocket attack reported by the IDF Spokesperson’s Twitter feed was on Monday night. A gradual reduction in the rate and intensity of attacks following reports of a ceasefire, prior to an actual calm, is a pattern that has appeared before with regards to Gaza terrorists.
Overall, one person in Israel was killed by the multi-day Gaza rocket assault. According to a statement released by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and posted on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, the rocket fire also resulted in more than a dozen injuries.
The rocket barrage began following Thursday’s multipronged terror attack that killed eight Israelis. The Israel Air Force responded to the terror attack and the rocket fire with strikes in Gaza.
Despite the fighting, COGAT said that one of the crossings into Gaza had been opened to allow thousands of tons of goods into the Gaza Strip. That included truckloads of construction materials transferred in by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, August 23, 2011)