Hamas brings out high-powered rockets to hit strategic Israeli targets.
Hamas rockets midday Thursday, May 13, ripped through Israel from the Greater Tel Aviv region to Beersheba in the south and including Ashdod, Lachish, Eylot in the Arava and the Bedouin settlements...Iron Dome intercepted 10 over the Tel Aviv region. Hamas spokesman said: “We have a new upgraded rocket with a range of 220 km and can reach any point in Israel.”
Have Hamas and Jihad got hold of more powerful rockets of longer range than before?
The answer, reliable military sources report, is in the affirmative. The ARAB Palestinian rulers of Gaza have begun using Fajr 5 (military codename M-75) (see photoabove) and Burkan (A-122), which reach deeper into Israel and pack a far more powerful punch.
For the first time, on Wednesday night, they shot a Fajr 5, an Iranian product with a long range and 333 mm calibre which is mounted on a Mercedes Benz 2631 forward control chassis. This rocket weighs a ton,
Its warhead is packed with 175 kg of fragmentation warhead containing 90 kg of high explosives. Hamas’ rocket engineers reduced its payload to extend the Fajr’s range to 170 km – up to the shore of the Sea of Galilee in north-eastern Israel.
The Palestinian terrorist organizations have not just escalated their rocket offensive, but they are now after big game, as was indicated on Tuesday when a rocket aimed at the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline set a gas container at the Ashkelon end on fire.
They have been trying to hit the offshore rig of Israel’s Tamar gas field. But they have not hit this target because, even after upgrading their rockets, they are not up to the high precision capacity installed by Iran in Hizballah’s missile arsenal.
Iran’s Lebanese proxy now owns a quantity of Fajr 5C rockets fitted with GPS guidance kits. Hamas leaders are hoping to obtain those ultra-lethal weapon systems soon.
Burkan, a locally developed version of an Iranian weapon, is more like a bomb than a rocket. These weapons have been responsible for the gaping holes driven in the walls of Israeli buildings, which took direct hits in the last two days in the towns of Sderot, Ashkelon, Petah Tikva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and Yahud.
The IDF’s air campaign has caused heavy damage to much of Hamas and Jihad weapons infrastructure. And the Iron Dome air defence system has knocked down 85-90% of the rockets aimed at populated areas.
However, much of that infrastructure is still operational and the Hamas/Jihad rocket arsenal remains out of reach of aerial bombardment.
IDF communiques leave the public ignorant about key elements of the Palestinian terrorists’ deadly rocket campaign against Israel. People are therefore bewildered over some of the gravest blows in the last 24 hours.
IDF Spokesman Hdal Zilberman waxed eloquent earlier on Thursday about the tremendous damage the IDF is causing Hamas and Islamic Jihad senior officers, infrastructure and latterly government institutions and banks, but glossed over as misreported the rocket attack as far north as the Jezreel Valley, home to a big air base.
This target is 164 km from the Hamas rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip. Furthermore, the direct hits to civilians and property are proliferating as are the casualties: Seven deaths in two days and nearly a hundred injured.
The IDF’s longstanding public relations tactics which tells the public as little as it can get away with is bad for morale and out-dated. The military can’t control communication by mobile phones or prevent the social media rumormongering.
Better to be more forthcoming for a suffering, responsible population hungry for information.
IDF calls up reservists as Hamas terror rockets continue to pound Tel Aviv in Israel...
14 May 2021
Hamas launched suicide drones laden with explosives into Israel on Thursday. At least two exploded in the air somewhere in central Israel. The drone attacks were preceded by the firing of 20-30 long-range rockets at central Israel, including Tel Aviv, and as far south as Eilat. Four people were injured.
A total of 1,600 rockets have been fired towards Israel since Monday, a third of them have fallen inside the Gaza Strip. The attacks came as the IDF called up reservists serving in artillery, Iron Dome batteries, doctors, paramedics, IAF, intelligence and other combat units. Another Iron Dome battery was also added to those placed around the country.
Hamas operatives fired large fusillades of rockets at the Tel Aviv area and Beersheba and toward Eilat’s airport on Thursday afternoon, in what the terror group said was an act of revenge for its commanders who were killed in Israeli strikes this week. Dozens of rockets were fired in the attacks, which triggered sirens throughout central Israel and the northern Negev desert.
Combat troops will also not be able to leave their bases and additional ground troops have been redeployed to the border ahead of a possible ground operation, including from the Paratroopers Brigade, Golani Infantry Brigade and 7th Armoured Brigade.
IDF Spokesperson Brigadier.-General Hidai Zilberman said that options remain on the table including a ground invasion. The plans will be presented to IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi and then to the Cabinet for approval later on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters IDF Spokesperson Brigadier-General Hidai Zilberman said that the plans are being put together by the Gaza Division and Southern Command and will be then given to Israel’s political echelon for approval.
After a large barrage of rockets towards central and southern Israel on Thursday afternoon, Abu-Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's military wing the Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, claimed that Hamas was launching rockets towards Ramon Airport with the 250 Ayyash rocket which he claimed is a strong rocket with a range greater than 250 km.
After the barrage, the Hevel Eilot Regional Council, located in the southern Negev, announced that a rocket had fallen in the regional council. No injuries were reported.
The Al-Qassam spokesman warned international airlines to immediately halt all flights to Israel.
Abu-Ubaida called the barrage "a victory for Al-Aqsa and part of our response to the assassination of our heroic leaders and engineers." A number of direct hits were reported in the barrage, including in Tel Aviv.
The barrage came as the IDF continues to hit government targets and banks as well senior leaders in the terror organization. On Thursday morning, the IDF struck at least five terrorist cells that were preparing to launch anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM's) towards Israel.
“The organization is losing everything,” Zilberman told reporters on Thursday morning. "Tonight we started destroying government targets in the Gaza Strip, such as central banks and internal security buildings. Hamas is beginning to discover cracks and there is pressure in the organization, even among the Gaza public who is losing its patience and sees these ruins on the eve of the holiday [of Eid al-Fitr]," he said.
Over 650 targets belonging to Hamas have been struck since the beginning of Operation Guardian of the Walls, such as those belonging to their police, Interior Ministry, banks, homes of commanders including that of the battalion commander of Khan Younis, a naval commando unit and a defensive tunnel inside a school.
Three high-rise buildings were also destroyed by Israel Air Force airstrikes and some 60 Hamas operatives have been killed, including 10 senior commanders.
Palestinian media reported on Thursday that at least 83 people have been killed in the IDF strikes, including 17 children, and that more than 487 have been wounded. Israel says that some were killed by rockets that misfired and fell inside Gaza.
According to Zilberman, all options remain on the table and additional ground troops have been redeployed to the border ahead of a possible ground operation, including from the Paratroopers Brigade, Golani Infantry Brigade and 7th Armoured Brigade.
On Thursday afternoon, Abu Ubaida claimed that Hamas has launched "massive rocket strikes" larger than any launched on Israel since the 1948 War of Independence.
"The decision to bomb Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Dimona, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba and closer and further than it, is easier for us than drinking water," added Abu-Ubaida. The Al-Qassam spokesperson dared Israel to "mobilize whatever forces you want from land, sea and air," warning that the terrorist group has "prepared for you varieties of death."
Great swelling words..but if they continue to expand this war their lives will be eradicated completely. Unless a cease-fire is called soon their fate has been sealed.
UPDATE; Israel may have already Begun Ground Operations Against Hamas in Gaza.
14 May 2021
Up to 4,000 troops had been amassed on the border in recent days, military officials have said
TEL AVIV—Israel’s military said it has begun ground operations against Hamas in Gaza, escalating its offensive against the militant group.
Lieutenant. Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said ground and air forces are striking targets in Gaza from the Israeli side of the border, including tanks and artillery. He initially said Israeli troops had entered the Gaza Strip but later retracted that statement.
“There are ground forces currently deployed along the border area and they are engaging and attacking the Gaza Strip from there,” said Colonel Conricus.
Israeli troops are moving into Gaza from the north, bombing first and entering with tanks, according to people in Gaza. It wasn’t immediately clear if these people saw the Israeli tanks move beyond the buffer zone that separates Israel and Gaza.
Israel’s military didn’t give more details about the operation, but some 3,000 to 4,000 troops have been amassed on the border in recent days, military officials have said. Those figures suggest a more limited operation because a full-scale invasion would require many more troops.
It isn’t immediately clear how big the ground operation is or what its aims are, but if troops actually cross into Gaza it would be the first time since the 2014 war that Israeli troops have entered Gaza to fight.
“I said we’d exact a steep price from Hamas, and that’s what we’re doing...The last word has not been said and this operation will continue for as long as it’s necessary,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter early Friday.
WORLD NEWS BRIEFING – Thursday 13 May 2021 with Tom Hughes & Greg Denham
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