One of the rockets landed near a children’s dormitory in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, others in open areas and two in Ashkelon.
In Ashkelon, one of the rockets struck the beach and another landed in a residential area near where one of the rockets struck the city Tuesday. Four Kassams fired from areas the IDF had just pulled out of struck the Ashkelon region Tuesday – one landing near a school, the other on a residential street and two near the city’s industrial zone, which is home to a major power station and chemical plants.
No injuries resulted from Wednesday’s attacks, though one woman went into cardiac arrest when a rocket landed in the center of Sderot Wednesday morning. Other rockets caused extensive damage and fires.
All PA Factions Call For Attack on Israeli Civilians
Both Hamas and Fatah, considered to be more moderate by the international community, issued explicit calls for attacks within Israel’s pre-1967 border targeting civilians Wednesday. The calls came on the heels of claims of an Israeli massacre in Gaza after eighteen Arabs were killed. The IDF is still investigating the incident, which may have been caused by a stray artillery shell.
Fatah’s northern Gaza commander Jamal Abed called for "cross-border attacks against Israel" Wednesday afternoon. He called upon the PLO’s Al-Aqsa Brigades militia to murder Israeli civilians in response to the Beit Hanoun incident. "I call on all the armed groups everywhere to avenge the blood of the dead with suicide bombings against Israeli civilians, as Israel murders Palestinians," he said.
Islamic Jihad leader Sheikh Nafez Azzam called upon members of his terror group to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians as well.
Hamas Chief Khaled Mashaal said that suicide bombings in Israel would resume immediately. The group’s spokesman Ghazi Hamad echoed the words of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying that Israel “must be wiped off the face of the earth. This is not a country of humans. These are animals and a bunch of gangs, and this nation must be wiped off the face of the earth.”
Shooting Attacks
Terrorists opened fire at a Jewish motorist traveling near Hevron Wednesday evening, failing to cause injury. The IDF launched a search in the area.
Two Negev Arabs and a Palestinian Authority resident were arrested Wednesday for their incolvement in a shooting attack on a Jewish motorist driving toward Eilat through the Negev desert.
Northeast of Hevron, Arabs hurled bricks and firebombs at IDF soldiers, lightly wounding a female soldier and damaging a military vehicle. Bricks and shrapnel were also hurled at vehicles driving past the village of Beit Anoun.
Police have announced that 12,000 Border Police and police officers, supplemented by IDF soldiers, will be deployed in Jerusalem to provide security for the homosexual parade set to take place near the Knesset Friday.
"This number is unprecedented on any scale,” Police chief Ilan Franco said Wednesday. “I can’t recall an event that required so much security. This is the most secured event in terms of numbers in a long time."
Counter-Terror in Judea and Samaria
IDF soldiers killed an armed man in a gunfight in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Jabaliya Wednesday afternoon. The air force destroyed the house of senior Hamas terrorist Ahmed al-Jabari as well. Jabari is second-in-command of Hamas’s largest militia. Israel warned him in advance to vacate the premises
In Samaria, IDF troops ambushed a group of Al Aksa Brigades terrorists on their way to carry out an attack. The ambush took place outside Jenin, in the village of Kafr Yamoun.
The terrorists ran and hid in a nearby olive grove. In the gun battle a man who was standing on his roof was shot as well. PA sources blamed the IDF, which is investigating the incident.