Terror rocket attacks continue, but so does aid going into Gaza. Israeli apartment hit during previous fighting with Gaza. Illustrative. Photo Courtesy of ZAKA.
Just days after a rocket attack from Gaza damaged a preschool in southern Israel, a Turkish ship delivering humanitarian aid for Gaza docked at an Israeli port. “We welcome this Turkish contribution to the ongoing Israeli effort to supply Gazans with products and merchandise,” tweeted the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to a tweet from the Turkish Embassy in Israel announcing the ship’s arrival.
Just two days earlier, a Gaza rocket did “heavy damage” to a building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, according to Israel Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld’s Twitter account. The Jerusalem Post identified the damaged building as an empty preschool. No physical injuries were reported. In response, the Israelis hit four Hamas sites that “were components of Hamas’ operational infrastructure,” according to an IDF press release.
“Israeli civilians have witnessed and experienced the devastating effects of incitement fueled terrorism based on hatred and radical beliefs,” IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner was quoted as saying in the press release.
“The rocket attack today in Sderot is a horrific reminder of the intentions of terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip to target communities, people, men women and children. In our efforts to ensure stability, we continue to defend against those who put innocent lives in harm’s way.”
As of Friday, Gaza terrorists had fired 13 rockets into Israel in 2016, according to the IDF Spokesperson Twitter feed. Over the years, thousands of rockets and mortars have been launched at Israel, sparking multiple wars between Israel and Gaza to try and subdue the rocket fire.
Despite the violence, Israel continues to allow supplies to reach the Gazan people. Last week, the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories group, which monitors the amount of aid that enters Gaza from Israel, tweeted that last week alone thousands of trucks carrying tens of thousands of tons of goods entered Gaza.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 3, 2016)