PM says, ‘We’re in a struggle spread across several fronts’; both he and Gantz hint at multiple days of fighting ahead
Today, 11:44 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the official state ceremony for Jerusalem Day on Ammunition Hill, May 10, 2021. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Israeli leaders on Monday vowed a forceful response after Palestinian terrorists launched multiple rocket barrages at Israel, including toward Jerusalem.
he rocket fire came amid escalating Israeli-Palestinians tensions that have centered on Jerusalem, where on Monday major clashes again erupted between Palestinian rioters and police on the Temple Mount. The Gaza-ruling Hamas terror organization, which claimed the rocket fire toward Jerusalem, had threatened to launch the projectiles if Israeli forces did not withdraw from the Temple Mount.
The rocket fire toward Jerusalem, a major escalation of violence from the enclave that threatened to spark a wider conflict, marked the first time the capital has been targeted since the 2014 Gaza war.
“We’re in a struggle spread across several fronts: Jerusalem, Gaza, and other areas in Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during an official state ceremony for Jerusalem Day. “The terror groups in Gaza crossed a red line on Jerusalem Day evening.”
He added: “Israel will respond with great force. We won’t tolerate harm to our territory, capital, citizens, or soldiers. Whoever attacks us will pay a heavy price.”
The premier further warned that the “current conflict may last for some time” and said Israel had not sought an escalation in violence.
Palestinians terrorists fire rockets from Gaza City toward Israel on May 10, 2021. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)<
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He did not comment directly on the violence at the Temple Mount or his reported decisions to curb activities on Jerusalem Day, which is mostly celebrated by religious nationalist Israeli Jews, over fears that they could lead to direct confrontations with Palestinians in the Old City.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned Hamas, after holding a security assessment with senior officials.
“The Hamas organization in recent weeks has violated Israeli sovereignty, crossed red lines. It will bear the consequences,” he threatened in a video statement.
He said several “offensive operations” of varying scope had been approved “that will severely damage Hamas and the other terror groups. Operations that will ensure the security of the State of Israel and restore total calm for the long-term.”
Gantz also pledged Israel would “do everything” to guarantee freedom of worship and said Hamas bore “sole responsibility” for the tensions.
“These offensive operations are expected to last until we accomplish the goals we set,” he added.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz holds a security assessment after Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired barrages of rockets at Israel, including toward Jerusalem, May 10, 2021. (Tal Oz/Defense Ministry)<
Shortly after Gantz’s statement, the Israel Defense Forces said it bombed a number of Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in response to the ongoing rocket attacks from the enclave, including eight members of the terror group who were launching projectiles at Israel.
The military said it also struck two rocket launchpads and two observation posts belonging to the terror group.
In addition to the attack on Jerusalem, Palestinian terror groups fired dozens of rockets at Israeli cities and towns near the Gaza border, including Ashkelon and Sderot, as well as smaller communities in the Sha’ar Hanegev region of southern Israel.
According to IDF spokesperson Hidai Zilberman Zilberman, most of the rockets either landed in open fields or were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
An anti-tank guided missile was also fired at an Israeli civilian’s car that was traveling on a hill south of Sderot, lightly injuring him, the military said. Medics said the man sustained shrapnel wounds to the face and extremities. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad took responsibility for the attack.
There were no other immediate reports of direct Israeli injuries from the barrages. A number of people were treated after they experienced acute anxiety attacks, medics said.
The Israeli Air Force began conducting airstrikes on targets in the Strip around 6:30 p.m. in response to the attacks from the enclave. Zilberman said the military was targeting rocket-launching cells, and had killed at least three Hamas members who had taken part in the attacks.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 20 people were killed in the Israeli strikes, including nine minors. Hamas accused Israel of carrying out an attack that killed three children, but Israeli officials said that they had died as a result of a failed rocket launch from the Strip.
Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
An excellent suggestion by Smotrich:
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/305991
@ Edgar G.:
I seem to recall targeted assassination working in the past. Hamas agreed to ceasefire in exchange for a promise by the Israeli government not to assassinate their leaders. And the top leaders don’t seem young. I am not suggesting limiting it to this. But, I don’t think their corrupt leaders don’t care about their own safety. Unless things have changed. Are they assassinating their leaders, I mean all of them starting at the top and working their way down? When I read articles saying that 130 sites were struck and 15 terrorists died and that a launching pad here and another there was eliminated, it really does not impress me much. Is Ganz in charge of the Defense ministry, Ganz who once said he would risk the lives of Israeli soldiers to avoid harming enemy civilians?
@ peloni1986:
You don’t have to believe in it or not believe in it.
Maybe there is nothing to believe in here.
I think it is suspicious. that he acted to fan the flames.
Don’t you think, though, that it is weird that Israel’s establishment acts like a helpless kindergartner.
Like it doesn’t have access to the international media, to diplomacy, to the UN (they have a representative there who is hiding somewhere instead of explaining Israel’s situation to the “world community”), to the modern weapons, to the Internet and social media. etc.
All you hear is:
Oy, oy, the UN!
Oy, oy, the State Department!
Oy, oy, the MSM (they are so unfair, sniff, sniff)!
Oy, oy, the Palestinians!
Oy, oy, Hamas!
Oy, oy. Fatah!
Oy, oy, the Israeli Arabs (“they, too, deserve peace”)!
Oy, oy, the rockets from Gaza (the US agrees that we have the right to defend ourselves, so let’s bomb some empty buildings in Gaza)!
This is so disgusting!
When Nazi Germany attacked the USSR and started slaughtering the Soviet POWs by the million and burning villages, etc., could you imagine the Soviets saying “Well, we DO have the right to defend ourselves but the Germans deserve peace, too, so why don’t we give them the Lebensraum they want in exchange for peace!”
A great idea, right?
@ Reader:
It is good to be on the look out for allies acting as agent-provocateurs – they are deviously destabilizing forces within your own ranks whose damage is often beyond repair once committed. That being said, I don’t believe this is true of Ben-Gavir – but then that is the trap isn’t it. But I still don’t believe it.
@ peloni1986:
All I am saying is that I kept track of what was happening before the disengagement, and he was very active (in a physical sense – with his presence) then, and there were rumors that he was an agent-provocateur.
All of a sudden, he pops up again and acts to inflame the situation.
To me, it looks suspicious, that’s all.
@ Reader:
Sorry Reader, but are you saying that you think Ben Gavir is acting to create a Pal State?
@ Edgar G.:
It is intolerable that any modern society would have to undergo such abuses as these while showing restraint of using the overwhelming military onslaught that Israel could so easily do and still be caste as the devil in this story. Who would allow the rain of such onslaught on their public? England? France? Italy? Germany? America? No! None would. And none should. The fundamental purpose of any gov’t is to protect and preserve the state and its citizenry. So how many thousands of murderous rockets must be accepted throughout the land without a final serious blow to their infrastructure. Israel does not want war, as we have always been a peace-loving people, but this is loving peace to such an extant that every battle is lost due to our intractable will to avoid it.
Yes, this is exactly correct, Edgar. Israel should not hold back by letting her response to these atrocities be to simply lop the heads from this Hydra so 10 more may rise back tomorrow. It was Sharon’s doing that created this monster, but since him, this behemoth has attacked again and again with too limited a reply. And so Sharon’s great betrayal to the state has placed this never ceasing gift of a festering wound within rocket range of too many innocents while the reluctance of these villains to show any form of restraint is too low. No other nation on this earth would bow to such senseless appeasement as this. And such appeasements gain nothing but to allow these depraved monsters their audacious threats to grow uncontrolled and become more bold with each strike and become more industrious in their methods of attack. Also, these abilities have grown to spread their criminal terror to every part of the state. And now too, they have sent their tools of murder to the capital, the capital that they claim with open hypocrisy as their third most holy sites. They fire death and ruin upon the citizens of this peaceful state and the response is to not break any eggs upon the tables of Gaza. If these people care so little for their lives, why must we care so much more for them than our own? We all bleed, but only some are under constant threat. I think their is much that could be done and much that needs doing. This is how you build a deterrence: you kill 1, we kill 10. It’s the ugly part that you never say out loud, but war is an ugly business and their are only two outcomes in war: either you win, or you lose. Murder is an act between men, but war is a an act between entities. This is war.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I think it is because they don’t think the situation is dangerous enough, i.e., they “are used to it” and think Israel will be able to handle it, as usual.
I find the situation extremely disturbing because, as I already mentioned, I think it is an Operation Divide Jerusalem & Create an Arab State “in exchange for peace”, and the Israeli establishment is in on it and is cooperating with it.
That “extremist” march in Jerusalem with people shouting “Death to the Arabs” was extremely unusual and suspicious, and the demonstration by Ben Gvir was suspicious to me, too, because I remember him being very active like this before the disengagement, and there were rumors then that he was an agent-provocateur.
An even better question is -why isn’t the Government of Israel more disturbed about the situation and stops it cold instead of prolonging the war?
It is intolerable that any modern society would have to undergo such abuses as these while showing restraint of using the overwhelming military onslaught that Israel could so easily do and still be caste as the devil in this story. How many thousands of murderous rockets must be accepted throughout the land without a final serious blow to their infrastructure. Israel does not want war, as we have always been a peace-loving people, but this is loving peace to such an extant that every battle is lost due to our intractable will to avoid it.
Yes, this is exactly correct, Edgar. Israel should not hold back by letting her response to these atrocities be to simply lop the heads from this Hydra so 10 more may rise back tomorrow. It was Sharon’s doing that created this monster, but since him, this behemoth has attacked again and again with too limited a reply. And so Sharon’s great betrayal to the state has placed this never ceasing gift of a festering wound within rocket range of too many innocents while the reluctance of these villains to show any form of restraint is too low. No other nation on this earth would bow to such senseless appeasement as this. And such appeasements gain nothing but to allow these depraved monsters their audacious threats to grow uncontrolled and become more bold with each strike and become more industrious in their methods of attack. Also, these abilities have grown to spread their criminal terror to every part of the state. And now too, they have sent their tools of murder to the capital, the capital that they claim with open hypocrisy as their third most holy sites. They fire death and ruin upon the citizens of this peaceful state and the response is to not break any eggs upon the tables of Gaza. We all bleed, but only some are under constant threat. I think their is much that could be done and much that needs doing. This is how you build a deterrence: you kill 1, we kill 10. It’s ugly to say out loud, but war is an ugly business and their are only two outcomes: either you win, or you lose.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
Targetted assassinations of their leaders are no use, never have been . They are all young, and there isn’t much to leading terrorists who already have the Jew Hate blueprint stamped in their minds. Kill one, and another is right there to step in. So it only makes good headline news but of no practical importance, like disrupting their plans or operations.
As we are seeing, even with the chief and his deputy both dead.
@ Reader: All very a prpos comments, Reader. Israel is now in a disastrous war. Israeli fatalities are injuries are mounting rapidly. A huge fire in a gas storage tank near Ashkelon that was hit by a rocket. Massive forest fires near Jerusalem and the Gaza envelope. Hundreds of rockets have exploded in Israel. “Israeli” Arabs burning down synogues, houses, hotels, restaurants, lots of cars, and even museum in Lod, Ramla, Acre.
Why aren’t Israpundit readers and even our webmaster, not to mention American, Canadian and British Jews, more disturbed about the situation? Why aren’t we protesting it more loudly, demanding our governments stop hassling Israel and start helping her? “Oh judgment, thou art fled to brutush beasts, and men have lost their reason” (Shakespeare, Julius Caesar).
The current events are a fortaste of what will happen when there is a real war and the “Arab Israelis”, AKA the 5th column (2 million of them) join the enemy forces:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/wildfires-raging-in-galilee-arson-suspected/
[emphasis mine]
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/in-first-correspondence-since-us-election-biden-sends-letter-to-abbas/
Finally.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-declares-state-of-emergency-in-lod/
@ Reader:
Do they want to torture and scare the Jewish population of Israel into accepting the “Palestinian demilitarized” state “in return for peace”?
Why can’t they go at them full force, and when the “world community” starts weeping and wailing for the poor “Palestinians” just make “die greise koshere oygen” and say “But we just did what the United States would do in our situation!”
Why are they not saying anything about the disaster in Lod?
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-may-11-2021/
How are you and your family during this war, Ted? Do you feel safe? Are you staying in a safe room or bomb shelter? Also , how are any Israpundit readers who are now in Israel doing? I am praying for all of you and all Israel.
The Jerusalem Post says one killed by Hamas rocket fire in Rishon le-Tsion, eleven injured in Holon, one critically, when Hamas scored a direct hit on a bus. Two killed, many injured in Ashkelon. Many injured in Ashdod. Total injuries in both towns around 150. Several houses and apartment buildings destroyed in both towns. An entire school building destroyed in one of them. (Ashdod, I think). .Fortunately, no classes were being held in it. Rockets hit numerous towns and villages in the Gaza “envelope.” Casualty reports not yet in from this area. One person seriously injured by an anti-tank weapon fired by a terrorist in Jerusalem.
In Ramla, inside “pre-1967” Israel, a Jew has been arrested for firing at and killing an Arab who was burning a Jewish-owned car. The supposed Arab” victim” was part of a mob that had already burned down several Jewish buildings, including a museum, and was advancing menacingly toward the “perpetrator” and his neighbors. Typical Israeli self-hating ‘justice.”
Targeted assassinations of Hamas’s leaders in whatever country they may be is the only effective deterrent short of carpet bombing or D-day like ground invasion and restoration of full occupation. Cutting off their television transmissions would also help. They really shouldn’t be able to watch anything but Israeli television, anyway.