Kassam rocket (archive)
Kassam rocket (archive)Israel news photo: Flash 90

While Gaza’s terrorists have fired hundreds of rockets and missiles into Israel over the past few days, quite a few have landed in Gaza itself.

According to statistics published by the IDF on Saturday night as the fourth day of Operation Pillar of Defense ended, 824 rockets have been fired at Israel, 270 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. 100 of those rockets have landed in Gaza.

At the same time, IAF aircraft, using precise intelligence, have succeeded in hitting no less than 1000 terrorist targets in the four days of the operation.

On Saturday, the Hamas government headquarters, which housed Gaza "prime minister" Ismail Haniyeh's offices, were leveled to the ground. In addition, "security compounds, tunnels and electricity transformers" were hit, according to Al Jazeera. IDF reports that a terrorist whose field was transformers used for rocket launching was killed.

The IDF's attacks from air and sea have been very accurate, and attempts to minimize civilian deaths have also been relatively successful, although with Hamas, one never knows when a family may be purposely placed in harm's way to create a bloodbath that can be blamed on Israel.

The technologically innovative Iron Dome's system's high rate of success at intercepting missiles is seen as the centerpiece of the IDF's performance in that it gives the military breathing room to pulverize Hamas targets without having to worry too much about Israeli civilian casualties.

Also on Saturday, the IDF deployed its fifth Iron Dome battery to protect the Tel Aviv area, and the battery went into action immediately, intercepting a rocket fired from Gaza.

A second rocket fired at the greater Tel Aviv area was not intercepted, however. It struck an empty area, causing no casualties or damage.

Hamas also fired a rocket at Jerusalem Friday afternoon. A siren sounded in the holy city but the rocket fell in an empty open area in the Gush Etzion area south of Jerusalem. There were no physical injuries or damage.

Reports surfaced on Saturday night that Israel will send a senior official on its behalf to Cairo to sign a ceasefire.

Israel has denied the reports and is continuing to mass troops near Gaza and striking terrorist enclaves, smuggling tunnels and rocket launching sites.