While Israel limps along in a state of transition, with the outgoing government adopting a hard-line position pertaining to Gilad Shalit and any deal with Hamas, the terrorists are not taking a break, unwilling to permit the Olmert administration a day of quiet. Rocket-fire from Gaza is not-so-slowly resuming, almost back to becoming a daily occurrence, with some days recording numerous attacks.

This was the case over the weekend, which included rocket fire into Ashkelon and areas south, including one barrage of 10 mortar shells. Baruch Hashem, there were no reports of physical injuries, but residents are exhibiting less tolerance than prior to Operation Cast Lead, calling on the government and IDF to respond forcefully and swiftly, to prevent a return to the days of pre-Cast Lead, when Hamas fired rockets at will, taking a heavy toll on the lives of the southern area residents.

Hizbullah was quick to distance itself from the Shabbos morning Katyusha rocket attack, with at least one rocket striking a home in a Christian community in the western Galil. Three people, members of one family, sustained light injuries as the explosion woke them at 8:00am. A number of others were treated for hysteria. Israel responded by firing a number of artillery rounds into southern Lebanon.

The IDF announced it views the Government of Lebanon as the responsible party, with a senior Northern Command officer stating Lebanese officials must take the necessary action to prevent a deterioration in regional stability.

UNIFIL force who responded to the firing area report they found additional rockets ready for launch.

In an interesting and somewhat related note, Hamodia (Hebrew) writes on Sunday that it did not publish any photos of the damaged home from the Shabbos attack because the photos were the result of chilul Shabbos from a Jewish photographer.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)