Amidst continuing talks regarding a long-term "ceasefire" and rumors as to whether or not the release of captive Gilad Schalit is connected to such a long-term truce, the existing ceasefire has proven to be a complete sham.
There have been at least 7 rockets and 12-15 mortars to hit southern Israel since Friday, including rockets hitting
south of Ashkelon,
Sha'ar Hanegev and
Ashkelon on Saturday night and Sunday morning.
10 of the mortars struck near the Kissufim crossing on Friday morning, another
2 mortars struck Kissufim and Gabim Region on Friday night and several more mortar shells fired on Sunday afternoon at IDF soldiers patrolling the border fence near the Kissufim crossing. Since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, rockets and mortars have hit southern Israel daily despite IAF retaliatory bombings.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Saturday night's rocket attack followed a
Saturday morning Katyusha rocket attack from Lebanon which hit in the North. The report noted:
Five people were wounded in the earlier Katyusha attack, as the rocket fired from Lebanon exploded near a home in a Western Galilee town.
Three people who were inside suffered light wounds from flying glass and shrapnel, and were hospitalized in Nahariya. Magen David Adom paramedics treated two others for shock...
The IDF responded immediately by firing artillery rounds at the source of the fire in southern Lebanon.
The IDF would not comment on who was behind the rocket attack or what measures, if any, Israel would take beyond the artillery response.
On January 8, three Katyusha rockets struck Nahariya, one slamming into a retirement home. Two people were slightly hurt. On January 14, three more rockets were fired into Israel from Lebanon.
Also Saturday, two Palestinian gunmen were killed in an explosion in Gaza close to the Israeli border, reportedly as they were preparing explosives for an attack on IDF border patrols.
The IDF said there was no engagement by soldiers in the area at the time.
Meanwhile, there is no word of any IDF retaliatory actions in response to the weekend's rocket and mortar attacks. The only news being reported is that the
Rafah crossing was opened Sunday for 3 days. The report notes:
Egyptian authorities have started letting students, third-country residents and medical patients stranded in Gaza cross the usually closed frontier...
The opening of the terminal appears to be in direct opposition to last week's Israeli security cabinet decision not to fully open the Gaza Strip's borders until Hamas freed kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
Following the security cabinet decision, Egypt had offered harsh words of criticism for Jerusalem's handling of the cease-fire negotiations that Cairo is brokering between Israel and Hamas, warning that "Israel is undermining its credibility"...
The big question is whether Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been picked to try and form the next government, will be able to stop the ongoing attacks, and how soon.
