Israel Under Fire: Missile Barrage Hits South
March 11, 2012 16:38 by Simon PloskerOnce again, 1 million Israelis have spent the last 48 hours running to the nearest bomb shelters or their reinforced rooms. Most of the headlines and articles have focused on Israeli air strikes on terrorist targets in Gaza that have resulted in the deaths of over a dozen Palestinians. But what about the impact of some 130 rockets (so far) aimed at Israeli towns and cities?
The Times of London describes rockets being fired at “Israeli border towns” while the Financial Times headlines its story “Escalation in Gaza border violence”. Ashkelon (population 113,000), Ashdod (population 206,000) and Beersheba (population 194,000) are anything but “border towns”.
Likewise, the weaponry deployed by Gazan terrorists is a far cry from “homemade” rockets.
Source: IDF Spokesperson's Unit
Some of the latest information courtesy of the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit:
- More than 130 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip at major population centers in southern Israel in the last two days.
- On Friday, March 9, four people were wounded, one severely. On March 10, a mare was killed and a home near Ashdod was damaged by a direct rocket hit.
- In light of the ongoing rocket attacks, schools in many cities and towns in southern Israel are closed on Sunday, March 11.
- Areas targeted include Ashdod, Be’ersheba, Yavne, Netivot and Ashkelon, as well as the Eshkol and Shaar Hanegev regional councils.
- The Iron Dome system intercepted about 90% of the rockets fired at Be’ersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon.
- The terrorist squads are launching their rockets from densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip, including Bet Lahiya, Jabaliya, Rafah, Gaza, and El-Bureij.
- Despite the rocket barrage, the Erez Crossing into Gaza is open for passengers and employees of international organizations. Kerem Shalom is open for the delivery of 200 truckloads from Israel into Gaza.
Keep an eye out for these issues in your local media:
- Moral equivalence: Is the media distinguishing between pinpoint Israeli strikes against terrorists as opposed to indiscriminate Palestinian rocket attacks purposely targeting Israeli civilians?
- The “Cycle of Violence”: Despite this oft used description in the media, this is not a “cycle of violence”, which apportions equal responsibility and intent to both sides. In this case, as in previous conflict situations, Israel exercised its right to pre-emptive self-defense by targeting a terrorist squad planning a combined terror attack that was to take place via Sinai in the coming days.
- Chronological inversion: Where does your media coverage start? With the launching of missiles from Gaza or the Israeli response? If the focus is on Israeli air strikes, does this skew the coverage to present Israel as the aggressor?
- A “Disproportionate Response“: Is Israel accused of overreacting or responding to Palestinian terrorist activity in a disproportionate manner? For more on this issue, see our Excessive Force presentation below:
If your local media is reporting on the latest events, make sure to take the time to send your emails and letters making it quite clear where responsibility for the violence lies – squarely with the terrorists firing rockets and planning terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians. Make sure that your media is also aware of the suffering of 1 million Israelis living through this latest rocket barrage.
For the latest updates on this fluid situation, follow HonestReporting on Facebook, Twitter and our Backspin blog.
Israel Under Fire: Missile Barrage Hits South | HonestReporting « News You May Have Missed
5:13 pm
Mar 11, 2012
[...] Israel Under Fire: Missile Barrage Hits South | HonestReporting. Share this:EmailPrintDiggFacebookRedditStumbleUponTwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this [...]
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Andre
5:22 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Norway’s largest newspaper (VG) has this sick headline : UNIVERSITY professor: “Hamas and Israel attacking each other to create headlines”
Israel does not attack, they defend themselves!
If you don’t shoot, Israel don’t shoot, if you do shoot, you will pay a price.
You can read the rest of the lies here: http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/midtosten/artikkel.php?artid=10078162
http://translate.google.no/#no|en|
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
jeb stuart
5:31 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Hamas claimed it would not serve as a proxy for Iran and hurl missiles or other acts of violence on the Ayatollah’s behalf. Then they started hurling missiles at Israel. There can only be one conclusion as to the intent. PM Netanyahu, the actaul leader of the Israeli people no matter how the Obama syncophant press tries to spin it, laid out 3 basic requirements Iran has to meet to prevent an Israeli pre-emptive attack on the Ayatollah’s doomsday bomb facilities. Dismatlement of underground uranium enrichment palnt at fordow. 2.The removal of enrivhed uranium stocks to intl control. 3. No more enrichment past 5% grade. (Source DEBKA from reports in Canada when Netanyahu met with the Canadian PM. Also not reported in the US media.) What has also to be considered is how will Israel to an Iranian missile attack? It would seem it has already begun through the proxy terrorist Palestinian Islamists.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
26 
1
Al Green
5:43 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Today’s Sun Sentinel in Florida reports these events as if the Israelis started it, along with a picture of Palistinians crying over the death of their citizens. I believe the events started with the firing of rockets into Israel and this was the response.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
37 
1
An Israeli
7:57 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Agree or Disagree:
0 
11
Stan Lee
6:16 pm
Mar 11, 2012
To comment, once again, that certain incidents concerning Israel are not reported via the American leftist-manipulated press is the same as beating a dead horse. Let’s be honest with ourselves and resolve ourselves that anything reported by the American MSM regarding Israel, would be an absolute rareity. Especially, if a report would shed a positive light on Israelis.
Only recently, there appeared in Pravda (no less!) an article written by American journalist Dianna Moffett. The issue here is that Pravda, which has delighted in criticizing the USA, printed an American journalist’s commentary when the American print media shut her out.
The article did not speak well of Obama or his administration. None of it was printed in the lefist American news media. We shouldn’t be surprised, the American news media, at least most of it, is a PR machine for Obama, very responsible for getting him elected without ever investigating the validity of his birthplace, or anything pertinent to his background that would qualify his Democrat Party to endorse him as a constitutionally-qualified presidential candidate.
This has to be a terrible embarrassment for many Americans, but it happened and will be recorded in our history as a failure to keep vigilant and defend our Constitution.
We can’t go on in this manner, I hope we’ll remedy the situation in the Nov. 2012 election…if not sooner.
In the interim, pleasae know that most of the American people are foir Israel and galvanizing to eject the present President.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
16 
3
Steven Muller
10:15 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Agree or Disagree:
0 
10
Skip
10:40 pm
Mar 11, 2012
You are just another of the mindless Zombies who follow obama and his agenda to destroy America and Israel!
Agree or Disagree:
2 
1
Edward Bow
6:35 pm
Mar 11, 2012
The foul BBC is totally silent about these attacks.I expected no less
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
21 
1
Linda Martin
6:35 pm
Mar 11, 2012
I, too, was horrified to hear a BBC news report commence with news of an Israel attack on Gaza which resulted in the deaths of many Palestinians, including one named terrorist; and only at the end of the report, as an aside, was it mentioned that Israel had previously been subject to rocket attack. Chronological Inversion, if ever there was! I was equally bemused a few nights earlier by a programme on the Yom Kippur war. There was a “Cease Fire” agreed when Egypt found itself in deep trouble (very magnanimous of Israel, I think) – but horror … during the Cease Fire Israel had the audacity to move its troops into a less vulnerable position behind the Egyptian lines. You would have thought they had committed some heinous crime, rather than use common sense in protecting themselves! And at the end of the war “it was difficult to say who had won” and “the President of Egypt got what he had wanted – peace on his borders”! No … he wanted to destroy Israel. NOW I know why the BBC is so poorly regarded.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
28 
1
Alblank
6:42 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Like the USA, Israel aims only at terrorists, predominately via use of drone aircraft and intelligence. Civilian collateral damage is avoided if at all possible. However, the Islamic Terrorists residing in Gaza specifically aim their missiles at Israeli citizens, in congested population centers – a million Israelis have been forced to take refuge in bomb shelters. Why? Because that is the nature of terrorism – to instill panic and fear into a people. I can imagine what the world’s response would be if Israel countered with rockets aimed at Gazan cities and civilians? Condemnation would be shouted from the rooftops. Even today, the television reports emphasize Israeli elimination of terrorists as “killings of militia” (not terrorists,) but they avoid any mention of the 130 or so rockets aimed and fired at Israeli populated, civilized, free, innovative, democratic cities.
However, Israel has not targeted Gaza population centers – Israel’s response has been measured and restricted to the culpable. Israel gave the terrorists a chance to calm the situation but they have continued firing scores of rockets at Israeli civilians. Yet the media continue in their quest to print only half-truths slanted to make Israel seem to be the culprit.
Israel has the absolute right to defend itself. Its people should not have to live in constant fear of constant terror attacks and rockets from pseudo governmental terror groups. The United States, the EU, the UN, et al, should condemn these attacks unreservedly, and forthwith. If not, and if the terrorists continue to be encouraged by the silence and favoritism of the international media, this flare-up will result in a much greater conflagration! And the media will be to blame for not assigning the blame to the guilty parties!
Why does the international community maintain ties with Hamas, a terrorist organization that receives money and weapons from Iran and is committed to destroying Israel? Is not every nation against terrorism? Or does it depend on who the victims are? Is it okay to kill Jews once again, like in WW II while screaming to the rooftops if a Muslim Associate Terrorist is “collaterally damaged?”
The United States, the world’s most respected democratic and freedom loving state, should take the lead and unite the world to hold Iran responsible for arming and financing these terrorists in Gaza (and in Lebanon and elsewhere) – and forcibly demonstrate, with movement of naval resources, that Iran’s drive to develop nuclear weapons will be stopped by whatever means are necessary.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
24 
1
Nathan Zafran
6:44 pm
Mar 11, 2012
As usual, the Western media is back to it’s usual baloney, whenever a major clash breaks out around the Gazan rat lair. We hear/read of “exchange of fire”, ‘Israeli airstrikes”, “amateuric homemade rockets”, “Arab deaths” etc., etc. You can almost predict, word for word, the Arab/Muslim and Western reactions. The Turkish and Arab demands that Israel ceases its “aggression” against the so-called “Palestinian people”. The West’s claim of “over reaction blah, blah, blah. Before every such clash, there is a steady drip of rockets into Israel, slow so as not to induce a “disproportionate” Israeli reaction. No return fire – good – a few more rockets, weak reaction – good – more rockets… until the major explosion occurs and the world wakes up. This event flared up after two months of slow rocket fire into Israel, with no world reaction, until Israel could no longer remain indifferent to what was happening and it reacted. In this case the clash coincided with a confirmed plan by Arab terrorists to commit an atrocity through the now penetrable Sinai border, which called for the annihalation of the leader of the terrorist splinter (but dangerous) group (the Jihad). It’s hopeless to demand honest reporting, so we’ll just have to continue to defend ourselves from the worlds’ present forces of evil – the Arab/Muslim terrorism and the hypocritical and cynical world.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
21 
1
Georg Witt
8:02 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Today on 2012-08-11 the TV news channel France 24 (English) weathered a “breaking news” slip saying “,,,people killed in Israeli air attack on Gaza (medic)” . Being closer to the events and in the possession of correct information I was started to look -without result- for a similar text saying ” 130 missiles fired from Gaza in one day on Israeli cities” . Knowing France 24 as a relatively correct news service it was surprising and not pleasant to see how readily the principles of honest reporting can be forgotten.
Sorry for lost confidence ….
Georg Witt
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
16 
1
Andrew
8:32 pm
Mar 11, 2012
This is the Middle East, and fighting by Israel is never going to be considered a fair fight. The mentality of the West does not understand that Jews now will stand up for themselves, and not wait to be cowered and slaughtered.
Just look at the world’s response to the fighting in Syria.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
16 
1
Stephen
10:05 pm
Mar 11, 2012
What if your “local media” is haaretz which has highly critical pieces. Why single out the Times of London or BBC when some commentators rather closer to home do not agree with your analysis
Agree or Disagree:
3 
0
Empress Trudy
10:07 pm
Mar 11, 2012
The least these so called journalists could do is put themselves in harms way the way those reporters in Syria were killed by rockets. I would like for once for one of them to at least admit they’re halfway across the country relying on second or third hand propaganda from the Arabs for their ‘stories’. If I were the IDF I would bus in these ‘journalists’ free of charge to the areas getting hit. They won’t of course report on it but if they claim to be made into human shields, which they probably will they’ll have to also admit that rockets are in fact flying. Worse case scenario they get shelled and shot at, badly rattled.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
7 
0
Lucila
10:08 pm
Mar 11, 2012
Sadly, the media here in Brazil is owned by a few arab and anti-semite families, and no amount of e-mail writing or comments in the forums of the major online newspapers does any good… Pro-Israel voices are all but shut out of mainstream media, and all that is left is the social media like Twitter and Facebook.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
7 
0
Israel Under Fire « Under the Sun
10:19 pm
Mar 11, 2012
[...] Read article [...]
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0
Henry Federman
11:52 pm
Mar 11, 2012
In today’s Le Monde there is an item about Israel cutting off water to the Palestinians,they call it “apartheid water” and how fewer settlers use more water than all the Palestinians,but not a word about all the rockets falling on Israel.
Agree or Disagree:
4 
1
Elle
12:58 am
Mar 12, 2012
CBC ran an article today entitled “Israeli airstrikes kill 3 Palestinians.” Its featured photo is Palestinians mourning, and the article goes on to talk about the suffering of the Palestinians. It briefly mentions that 120 rockets have been fired into Israel, but says nothing about the suffering of the Israeli citizens. It is interesting to note that although the rockets have been bombarding Israel for a few days now, the CBC only chose to write an article on the situation when a Palestinian casualty was reported- seems like Israeli deaths or injuries are not news-worthy.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
6 
1
Dutch
2:31 am
Mar 12, 2012
Here in Holland totally news black out. Nothing is happening …………
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
robert donaldson
2:46 am
Mar 12, 2012
and these people want peace.
Theres no possiblity of peace as the devil knows no truth.
He comes to kill and destroy for there is no truth in him.
when israel is asked to give up land it should always be an emphatic no.
when Yeshua returns these people who seek to harm His people the Jewish,
he people called pallestians (philistines) will be sadly left for the crows.
Repent and turn from your wicked ways you who harm Gods chosen people.
For there is hope for you if you seek the author of live Yeshua.
He said I AM, the way the truth and the life ..that no-none comes to the Father but
through Him Yeshua.
Agree or Disagree:
1 
0
Nursecrd
2:47 am
Mar 12, 2012
Self defense is the right of any sovereign country unless it is Israel. Unfortunately, the world sees it that way too.
Frankly, we know that Hamas and Hizbullah or cowards. They run their operations from densely packed civilian areas to protect themselves and to use civilian casualties to make news for for the idiots in the BBC, the Guardian and others who believe the pablum that they are being fed.
Since the terrorist groups do their deeds from tightly packed civilian areas, they are using the populace as human shields. The issue is that if these human shields die during an Israeli retaliation, then the Hamas and others like them are responsible for the death of these people, not the Israelis.
It would be interesting to see how the BBC, the Guardian and others like would change their tune if someone, like a radical muslim bombed one of their offices and murdered one of their reporters. Would be real interesting. Who do you think would get the blame? Hamas or another radical muslim group, certainly not, Israel, most likely.
If Israel decides on a raid into Gaza, then it should not be a surgical raid but an all out raid that sets Hamas back to the stone age. Lots of bombs and lots of napalm will take care of the issue.
And as to world opinion, screw them ans well as the United Nations too.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
4 
0