Missile alert sirens sounded across Greater Tel Aviv Saturday, Nov. 17, before an explosion caused by Iron Dome’s interception of one of the two rockets incoming from the Gaza Strip against Israel’s largest conurbation for the third day in a row. The second rocket landed harmlessly on open ground.
Hamas claimed to have launched Iran-made Fajr-5 long-range missile against Tel Aviv. The Iron Dome anti-missile battery was deployed for the first time in Greater Tel Aviv that morning,

Knowing that the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt had egged Hamas on to launch a major missile offensive against Israel, the Netanyahu government took the precaution of getting US backing before launching Israel’s counter-offensive to degrade the terrorist group’s rocket capabilities.

The first three Palestinian missiles reached the Tel Aviv conurbation, Gush Dan, Thursday night, Nov. 15. shortly after a long-range missile exploded in Rishon Lezion southeast of Tel Aviv and sirens sounded in outlying towns of Holon, Ness Ziona, Gan Raveh and Beer Yacov. None report casualties or damage. Defense Minister Ehud Barak has ordered 30,000 army reservists drafted. The IDF spokesmen earlier reported units of the elite paratroop and Givati Brigades were mustering outside the Gaza Strip.

Most Palestinians groups met in Gaza City Monday night, Nov. 12, to approve a ceasefire after a three-day, 300-rocket assault on Israel. But the Salafists stayed away, instead firing 5 heavy Grad rockets against Netivot, Beersheba and Ofakim and taking delivery of a fresh load of Grads through the Sinai tunnels, assisted by Tehran’s proxy, Jihad Islam. Yet Israel, Egypt and even Hamas continued to delude themselves that a ceasefire can work - although Israel’s top command reckons it will collapse within days.

Al Qaeda missiles struck Kibbutz Kholit opposite the Egyptian-Gazan-Israeli border junction and an IDF post in the Kissufim district Monday, Aug. 28, debkafile reveals, in line with the terrorists' tactic of holding Israel hostage as a lever for bending Cairo to their will.  The IDF communiqué omitted to mention those attacks - only the Qassam rocket targeting Sderot that morning.  Al Qaeda’s affiliates timed their strikes for derailing talks the Egyptian defense minister and army chief held Monday with Sinai Bedouin chiefs.

For the first time, a thread links the triple rocket attack on the Israeli town of Sderot, with the two terrorist cells captured in Riyadh and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – Sunday, Aug. 26, debkafile reports. Both were conceived by Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. AQAP has ordered its Sinai cells and Egyptian and Palestinian offshoots to step up their attacks and hold Israeli towns, Eilat and Sderot, hostage against pursuit. Fears that chemicals held by the Saudi cell may have reached Sinai.
 

Col. Adam Zusman, Home Front Commander of Israel’s Dan region told AFP Tuesday, June 12, "In case of a missile attack on the centre of Israel, especially unconventional attacks and if buildings are destroyed, the population from Tel Aviv and other cities will be evacuated and relocated in other areas of the country."  The first Israeli official to speak openly of this prospect, he did not say to where the roughly three million inhabitants of Tel Aviv and its environs would be relocated. The threat came from Iran and its allies, he said..

Iran is setting up Jihad Islami, its Palestinian arm in the Gaza Strip, as its spearhead for attacking Israel in place of Hamas which Tehran no long trusts, debkafile’s reports exclusively. The radical group is receiving a new range of shore-to-ship radar-guided missiles and a new military industry is being set up in Gaza for the high-speed production of dozens of Qassam missiles in series capable of doubling the intensity and range of attacks on Israel to 200 per day up to Tel Aviv.
 

Israel Thursday night, March 15, gave Egypt and Hamas two days to halt the five-day missile offensive from Gaza or expect IDF action against the shooters. debkafile reports that the missile operation has been taken over by a small group of Salafi Palestinians linked to al Qaeda. And Hamas leader Mahmoud A-Zahar is currently visiting Tehran and being urged by his Iranian hosts to block a ceasefire so as draw the Israeli military into a messy showdown with the Salafis.

Six mortar rounds exploded on empty ground in the Eshkol farm district abutting on the Gaza Strip shortly before Tuesday March 13 noon, less than 12 hours after Cairo announced a ceasefire. debkafile reports Palestinian organizations, including Hamas, are resolved to keep up a low level of fire on Israeli civilian locations so as to establish their prerogative for shooting at will regardless of any ceasefire deals. Israel is apt to accept this arrangement to avoid a head-on clash.

The 100 missiles fired by the Palestinian Jihad Islami escalated Saturday and included Grad multiple rocket launchers mounted on vehicles and SA-7 anti-air rockets, the Russian version of the American Stinger, smuggled from Libya. Defense minister Ehud Barak warned there was more to come and the threat of a terrorist attack from Sinai was not over. A third Iron Dome anti-missile battery was posted in Ashdod. The police raised the terrorist alert nationwide to one below the highest level.

Palestinian terrorist organizations shot more than 80 Grad and Qassam missiles into a dozen southern Israeli towns and villages, sustaining a non-stop barrage Friday night and Saturday morning (March-9-10) in reprisal for the death of Zuheir al-Qaisi, head of the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza. At least 8 Israeli civilians were injured by missiles and another 10 Palestinians killed in ongoing Israeli air strikes against missile teams and terrorist targets. Fifteen rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome batteries. Jihad Islami said "The truce is dead."

Israel's military (the IDF) is no longer hiding from view its preparations for an attack on Iran's nuclear program – most probably from the spring – and its expectation of armed hostilities erupting consequently on at least three fronts, Syria, the Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian Hamas in Gaza. On Jan. ...

The Lebanese Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has briefed his unit commanders on updated operational plans for firing 10,000 rockets at Tel Aviv and Israel's air force and reserve mobilization bases in a surprise attack, debkafile's military sources report. "The Zionist enemy cannot stand up to a salvo on that scale," he said and assured them that Hizballah is capable of fighting Israel without Iranian or Syrian help. To boost morale, Nasrallah disclosed the arrival of advanced weapons from Libya and unveiled plans to capture parts of Galilee.

Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ashdod and Sderot were again under missile fire from Gaza Monday night, Oct. 31 for the third day - although Israel's Home Front Minister Mattan Vilnai had stated the Jihad Islami offensive was over. Of the 7 missiles, one was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery in Beersheba.  Skeptical of the military assessment, several southern mayors kept schools closed. The continuing barrage and the army's decision to park an Iron Dome in Rehovot proved they were right.
 

Ashdod, Ashkelon, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Ofakim, Gan Yavne and the Eshkol farm district were subjected to Jihad Islami volleys of more than 35 missiles Saturday, Oct. 29, in retaliation for the loss of a senior five-man missile team in an Israeli air force strike a few hours earlier. One Israeil was killed. The terrorists were shown firing 20 rounds in rapid succession from a Grad multiple rocket launcher mounted on a small truck which then drove off at speed – the same weapon used by Libyan rebels in Sirte.

Israeli units on the Egyptian frontier went on peak alert Wednesday night, Aug. 24, following specific intelligence that Palestinian Jihad Islami was set to launch another cross-border attack from Sinai. Earlier Wednesday, Gen. Benny Gantz, Chief of Staff announced that Israel's Defense Forces were no longer treating the Egyptian frontier as a border of peace because of new threats. The new situation was exemplified by the terrorist attacks Palestinian gunmen launched from Egyptian Sinai on Aug. 8 killing eight Israeli civilians and injuring forty.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ruled Sunday, Aug. 21, that his first priority is to grant Egypt's military rulers the kudos for brokering a ceasefire in the Gaza missile war  – and deal later with the Palestinian Jihad Islami which fired most of the 100 missiles exploding in Israel from Gaza in the last four days. debkafile: He was wrong: Cairo will come back for more concessions under Muslim Brotherhood pressure; Jihad Islami and its masters, Tehran and Hizballah, remain free to restart missile fire any time.

Updates reaching debkafile's military sources say that Hamas had stockpiled more than 10,000 by early May – in defiance of Israel's partial blockade of the Gaza Strip. Following April 9, when the Palestinian extremists shot 133 rockets at seven Israeli cities, Egypt's military rulers persuaded Israel to accept a ceasefire in lieu of an operation for smashing this arsenal. By September, when Egypt holds elections that Hamas' parent the Muslim Brotherhood is heavily tipped to win, Hamas will have accumulated 11,000 missiles. 

Israel has agreed to halting its military operations in Gaza in return for a partial Hamas ceasefire – a deal which represents the Netanyahu government's surrender to the Islamists' missile offensive against southwestern Israel. It has left intact Hamas's capabilities for striking Israeli heartland cities and given it a license to carry on attacking communities abutting the Gaza Strip. Despite the potential strategic edge offered by the new Iron Dome, most Israeli civilians within range remain exposed to missile and mortar attack.