Israel fires warning Tamuz missile into Syria as Gaza front escalates
Israel’s deteriorating security situation erupted simultaneously on two fronts Sunday, Nov. 11. The IDF fired a Tamuz precision guided missile against a mortar position 4 kilometers inside Syria after a stray mortar hit the IDF Golan defense post at Tel Hazaka. It was the fourth incident of cross-border violence from the Syrian conflict in 10 days and the first time Israel had fired across the Golan border since the 1973 war. The Tamuz was developed by RAFAEL and is operated from specially modified M-113 Hafiz armored personnel carriers.
At the same time, on the southern front, Palestinians fired Grad missiles from Gaza at the city of Beersheba after loosing a barrage of 60 missiles in less than 24 hours against multiple Israeli civilian locations. Iron Dome intercepted one of the missiles.
Four Israeli soldiers were wounded Saturday, two seriously by an anti-tank missile which set their jeep on fire. Four civilians were injured in their homes and hospitalized Sunday.
The shot fired at Syria was described by the IDF spokesman as a warning to Damascus, backing up the Defense Minister Ehud Barak warning last week that spillovers from the Syrian war would not be tolerated and would elicit a military response.
Israel’s military command expects the military confrontation on the Gaza front to escalate. Israel’s emergency services have been elevated to maximum C-level preparedness in the South and also further north, in case Hamas expands its rocket offensive to central Israel as well.
The Palestinian Gaza terrorist grades are now firing Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) “Katyshas” supplied by the Lebanese Hizballah and 120-mm bunker-busting mortars in their current offensive against Israeli towns, villages and troops, Israeli lawmaker Shay Hermesh revealed Sunday, Nov. 11 after 6 civilians sere hospitalized.
The Knesset member who lives in Kfar Azza spoke after more than 60 assorted rockets hit southern Israel from Saturday. The public radio Kol Israel interrupted the interview with Hermesh at that point to prevent any more disclosures.
debkafile: The civilians injured Sunday in intense rocket fire aimed at Sderot, Shear Hanegev and the Eshkol district were apparently caught by concentrated Katyusha fire rather than the hit-or-miss Qassams or Grads.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the weekly cabinet session by saying: We are set to escalate our response.”
debkafile reported Saturday: Violence spewed out of the Gaza Strip again Saturday night, Nov. 10, with a rocket attack on an IDF Givaty Brigade jeep on a routine task some distance from the border, injuring four Israeli soldiers – one critically, two in moderate condition. This time Hamas’ contractor was the Palestinian Popular Front. After Israeli tanks and helicopters fired back, the Palestinians fired rockets against the Eshkol and Shear Hanegev districts, followed by Grad rockets aimed at Ashkelon, Ashdod and Gan Yavneh. Iron Dome intercepted two. Locations north of Ashdod as far north as Gedera went on missile alert. No more casualties are reported thus far.
Thursday, Nov. 8, Palestinian terrorists detonated by remote a tunnel packed with explosives against a group of Israeli soldiers. None were hurt. The soldiers were searching for bombs rigged as booby-traps for use against their comrades. IDF units in the Gaza sector have been on high alert since before then as Palestinian attacks have kept on coming in an escalating spate – eight from Oct. 8 until this Saturday.
But before that, on Oct. 6, two days after an Iranian stealth drone flew over Israel, Hamas loosed its heaviest barrage ever of 60 rockets and missiles against the Eshkol district. The IDF made no response this this outrage.
On Oct. 13, after an Israeli air strike killed the jihadist Majlis Shura’s commander, Hisham Saidani, Israeli civilians in Beersheba, Netivot and other locations suffered two running days of Palestinian rocket fire on their homes.
On Oct. 19, an IDF patrol was hit by a roadside bomb near Ein Hashlosha.
For three days, Oct. 22-25, rocket salvoes descended on Ashkelon and other locations. This time, the Palestinians began firing for the first time mobile 120mm multiple-firing “Katyusha” systems. Another roadside bomb near Kissufim seriously injured a senior IDF officer, blowing off both his arms..
There was a further escalation after the Israeli bombardment of an Iranian missile plant near Khartoum, one of Hamas’ arms suppliers. On Oct. 28, Palestinian Grad missiles were again fired at Beersheba and the regional area of Dimona where Israel’s nuclear reactor is situated.
Now, once again, more than a million civilians living within the Palestinian terrorists’ ever widening radius of fire are being told to stay close to shelters – those who have them – and mayors worry about opening schools.
And once again, they hear that the Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has called an urgent conference with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz. The people living in an area between Gedera and the southern tip of the Gaza Strip up to Beersheba wait again on tenterhooks for some action to put an end to their long agony as hostages to Hamas.