URGENT: Israelis Injured in Rocket Attacks, IDF Responds // FAI ONLINE

Bystanders in Ashdod tend to a wounded man on the ground (left) and take pictures of a damaged storefront after a Gazan-based rocket impacted the road nearby (via @manniefabian on Twitter).

While Arab and Israeli leadership met at the White House today in observance of the peace deal between Bahrain and Israel, Islamic militant groups in the Gaza Strip replied with an act of war. At least two rockets were fired into Southern Israel towards the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon during the White House ceremony. They were both intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system, but the remains of one rocket impacted a busy street in Ashdod, injuring at least two Israelis and causing several more to go into shock. Amateur video uploaded to social media shows the shattered glass of a nearby storefront, damage to the road, and debris strewn at the scene of the impact. Shortly after the rocket attack, two Gazan militants carrying weapons were arrested by Israeli forces after crossing the security fence.

In response, the Israeli military struck at least 6 targets in Gaza overnight, including facilities used by Hamas, the terrorist organization that has ruled Gaza for over a decade. Hamas and its proxies retaliated with a barrage of thirteen rockets on Wednesday morning, sending nearby Israelis back to shelters for the second time in twelve hours. Eight rockets fired over population centers were once again intercepted by Iron Dome, and no reports of further injury or property damage have been reported. The IDF responded with additional airstrikes targeting an underground Hamas structure near Jabalia in Gaza.

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Many Israeli analysts and experts, including IAI Director Marco Moreno, have anticipated that militant groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, as well as their benefactors in the Iranian and Turkish regimes, will attempt to sabotage the Israeli-Arab peace accords by drawing Israel into another war in the Gaza Strip. For decades, Hamas’ primary tactic has been to provoke Israel into military action that causes the death of Palestinian civilians, in order to turn international public opinion against the Jewish State, and to force Arab governments to distance themselves from Israel. Since 2014, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to avoid another large-scale bombing campaign or ground invasion in Gaza. Gulf Arab states, such as the UAE and Bahrain, have recently stated their solidarity with Israel in the ongoing, mutual struggle against Islamic militancy, which has become a driving factor in the Israeli-Arab détente.

As always, we ask the global FAI family to be in prayer for the safety of civilians in both Israel and the Gaza Strip. We pray that the IDF would be successful in targeting and destroying the means of terrorism, while the lives of Gazans who have been ensconced around Hamas targets would be spared. We pray that every rocket fired from Gaza into Israel would miss its mark or be safely intercepted. We pray that the schemes of violent men would only strengthen the Israeli-Arab peace process, and that good-willed leaders in the region would be granted wisdom in implementing the peace accords into reality. And we pray that ill-willed leaders of certain regimes would be restrained, their subversive work exposed, and their attacks would come to nothing.

Maranatha.