Palestinian rocket aimed at Jerusalem for first time as Hamas vows "more surprises"
Israeli security forces search for a rocket thought to have been fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, in Jerusalem, Nov. 16, 2012. / AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner
TEL AVIV The rocket Hamas claimed to have fired from Gaza fell just short of Jerusalem on Friday, set off warning sirens heard by the citizens.
The city has previously been out of reach. While no one was hurt when the missile fell just short of the ancient city, it told Israelis that not only were they vulnerable, but Hamas was willing to take enormous risk to let them know it.
East Jerusalem is home to hundreds of Palestinians and the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam.
If the missile was indeed fired from Gaza, it demonstrated that Hamas's military wing has figured out how to extend the range of its missiles, perhaps by cutting down on the payload to add more fuel.
Israel, Palestinians in deadly clashes
"We are sending a short and simple message: There is no security for any Zionist on any single inch of Palestine, and we plan more surprises," Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said to various news agencies.
Hamas officials said the rocket was a homemade M-75 rocket, a weapon that has never been fired before. Early rockets fired by Hamas were homemade, with limited range and destructive power.
Sophisticated projectiles with a longer range are believed to have been smuggled into Gaza from Iran and Libya, where arsenals were looted during the battle to oust the Qaddafi regime.
Most of the projectiles don't have guidance systems, but the Israeli military believes Hamas may also have some with more precision targeting capabilities.
Two missiles have also fallen in the sea off Tel Aviv, Israel's heavily-populated commercial capital, in the past two days. They were the first missiles to even come close since ballistic missiles were fired by Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War.
The attempts to hit Tel Aviv and Jerusalem came as Israel was massing troops and armor along the Gaza border. Some 16,000 reservists have already been called up, with provision for another 14,000 if required.
Defense and political analysts predicted on Israeli TV that air raids on Gaza will continue for the next three to four days, if only because countries which back Israel would find it harder to keep doing so in the face of the inevitable civilian casualties a ground offensive would cause.
Israeli officials insist they do not want war but will not tolerate a situation where Hamas and other militants can threaten Israeli civilians.
But Hamas may also be bolstered by the gathering support it has in the Arab world.
Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil paid an unprecedented visit to Gaza on Friday, and the Tunisian foreign minister is scheduled to drop by on Saturday, air and missile strikes permitting.
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Sophisticated projectiles with a longer range are believed to have been smuggled into Gaza from Iran and Libya, where arsenals were looted during the battle to oust the Qaddafi regime."
Those two paragraphs appear together in the original story as they do above. One paragraph reports that HAMAS says they have made these longer range rockets themselves. Yet on the next paragraph CBS obediently parrots the official propaganda that the long range rockets come from Israel.
Common sense here, people. Iran wants to avoid war. Iran has not started a war in over 200 years (a record neither the US nor Israel can match). Why would Iran do something as stupid as send missiles to Gaza, knowing that if just one were intercepted by Israel, the US would have their excuse for the long sought invasion to force Iran to sell their oil only for US dollars.
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm
Keep in mind that there are MILLIONS of American's who
do NOT support the Welfare Queen / War Monger Israel.
*************************************
Is that you, Whacko-With-Many-Names?
If I'm giving Posting credit for the rabid anti-semitism of another...
Too freakin' bad!
The current situation, is working quite well for Hamas' masters.. The Hamas terrorists are free to fire anywhere in Israel, while Israel is totally constrained to demolishing empty terrorist buildings; the terrorist hide behind the Pal poppulation and so on... The war will continue until the Hamas terrorists have fired all their missiles against Israel. Once again Israel is under attack by one of Iran's proxis, Hamas this time. It is unfortunate that the Arabs are so blind, that they do not see what is occuring. In this case both the Pals and the Isr are being used to carry out Iran's, plans.
Where is the master of disaster and his two fruit of his loins now?
Keep your eye on Israel. There is a relationship between the land, the people, and God Almighty.
God's Son shed His blood on that soil and you can bet that God the Father doesn't take that lightly, like the Muslim's do.
You liberals live in a bizarro world where you somehow think there's some sort of sick virtue in literally taking the opposite side of whatever seems right, moral, justified or prosperous...
Liberals - traitors to our nation, enemies of God.