By Esther Korson
In 2005, Israel withdrew from the settlements next to the Gaza border. It was one of the saddest things I have ever seen. But it was done with the hope that it would issue in a true season of peace on that southern border—a promise actually made by PA leader Mahmoud Abbas at that time. Since then, however, more than 11,800 rockets have been fired on Israel. Every single one of those rockets was sent by the terror organizations with the hope that they would kill as many innocent Israeli citizens as possible. That is a huge number of rocket attacks! The reason the world has not heard about the extent of the hostility is because the rockets did not succeed in killing innocent Israeli citizens.
And the reason for that is because we have a double defense system. Almost every single time over the years that an announcement came on the news about one of those attacks, the news reporter would invariably say, “The rocket landed in an open area, there were no injuries, and no damage was caused.” There is no logical explanation for the reason that the rockets were not successful. But our first line of defense is this, the words of the Lord God of Israel: “No weapon formed against you will prosper.” We have seen His protection in war after war and conflict after conflict. Without Him, it’s unimaginable that we would have even survived as a nation until now! During the Gulf War, for example, 39 Scud Missiles fired from Iraq landed in Israel, almost all of them in the city of Tel Aviv, an area of great population density! And as impossible as it seems, not one single person was killed! (One man died of a heart attack). It is only the Lord’s protective hand that made that possible. Lately, we also have the Iron Dome Missile Defense System. It intercepts in the air those missiles that are headed for populated areas. It has proven to be 90% successful.
I loved what David Horowitz, editor of Times of Israel, said in an IBA news interview: “We have a defense system, talk about finding a needle in a haystack—this system is hitting needles out of the sky. Israel’s capacity to survive in the most outrageous circumstances against the most horrific challenges continues to astound. This is tiny Israel, 9 miles wide on its western edge. We have aggressors in every direction in which we chose to look—and yet Israel is strong and its resilience and innovation are extraordinary”.
In this current escalation, when Hamas started bombarding the southern Israeli population centers with dozens of rockets, Israel sent them a cease-fire proposal and a strong warning to stop firing rockets. But the rocket fire from Gaza only increased significantly, until it was clear that Israel had to stop this scourge of terror once and for all. (Please bear in mind that Hamas is openly committed to the total destruction of Israel and they say so often). And so ‘Operation Protective Edge’ began. Yesterday, (the 8th of July) Hamas and the other terror organizations launched a huge barrage of rockets—65 in one hour alone—more than one per minute! Twenty-nine of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome; and the rest caused some damage but there were no injuries. Thank You, Lord, once again!
So what happens when rockets are launched? When the Red Alert sirens sound, people have from 15 seconds to one minute and a half to run to shelter depending on the part of the country in which they live. They’re instructed to stay in the safe area for 10 minutes after the sirens have sounded and to then get on with normal life. Early last night, sirens sounded in Sderot, Bashan ha Negev and Eshkol regions, as well as in Neviot, Afikim, Beersheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, the Bedouin town of Ra’av, Rehovot, Gan Yavne, Beit Shemesh, and in the hills outside of Jerusalem, sending over one million residents of Israel to shelters and security rooms. And then, later in the evening, rockets were fired at Tel Aviv, and around 2200, the red alert siren sounded in Jerusalem as three rockets headed our way. Later, rockets reached the area of Caesarea and almost to Haifa. The Home Front Command ordered bomb shelters in Tel Aviv and in Jerusalem to be opened, and gave instructions to citizens throughout the country as to how to react when the sirens are heard. There is also a silent radio frequency operating now during the nighttime hours that will only be operational region by region when an alert is needed. By now, the 14th of July, 5 million Israelis are now in rocket range. (Seven million is the total population of Israel, remember).
Infantry and tank brigades are already deployed at the Gaza border. Fifteen hundred reservists had already been called up to active service, and another 40,000 were authorized. By now, the 14th, 15,000 have been mobilized. Every man until the age of 55 is part of the IDF reserves. When more than 15,000 reservists are called—with the possibility of 25,000 more—you can imagine how much it affects many families in this tiny country. . The regular soldiers are our sons and daughters aged 18 to 21.When fathers, brothers, sons leave home to head to the front, family members are left behind with the unanswered and unspoken question in their hearts. “Will they come home again?” So please understand, in every way, that your prayers are deeply needed for this land and for the soldiers and for the families that remain at home.
Since the start of the operation Gazans have fired some 950 rockets in a seven day period. 750 of them hit Israel, the vast majority landing in open spaces. The Iron Dome intercepted some 200 rockets headed to populated areas. Israel has now warned the people of the northern Gaza strip to evacuate the area for their own safety. Hamas told them NOT to evacuate, asking them to remain as human shields, showing their total disregard for the sanctity of human life. But thankfully many thousands have indeed left. It is from the northern strip where the majority of rockets have been fired and Israel is about to intensify its operations there.
There are a few things about this conflict that I want you to understand. Israel is desperately and determinedly defending the citizens of this nation from a huge barrage of rockets. At the same time, they are also trying to defend the civilian population in the Gaza strip. There is not a more moral army in the world. Hamas, knowing this, has embedded itself deeply into the civilian population of Gaza. Terror organizations have no regard for human life. The entire population in Gaza is being used by Hamas as a human shield. Their headquarters and weapons storage facilities and rockets are hidden in houses, hospitals, mosques, etc., knowing that Israel always tries not to kill innocent people. The air force announced that hundreds of sorties in this current conflict were abandoned because of the danger to the residents of Gaza. They even released a video showing a pilot notifying mission headquarters that children were spotted near the intended target, and you can hear on the video the announcement that the mission was cancelled.
When Israel is about to bomb a building housing the Hamas infrastructure and weapon sites, they warn the local citizens. They send warning shots, or leaflets from the air, or signals on cell phones. IDF Brigadier General Motti Amoz insisted that the army is working diligently to avoid civilian casualties among the civilian population in Gaza. The IDF’s extensive utilization of tactics to prevent injuries to non-combatants include precision strikes on terrorist targets in urban areas, the firing of warning shots ahead of air strikes and sometimes even cancellation of air strikes.
At a Cabinet meeting on the 13th of July, Netanyahu stressed that the difference between Hamas and Israel is that while Israel was using anti-rocket batteries to protect Israel’s citizens, Hamas is using Gaza’s citizens to defend their rockets.
Because the terror organizations are so deeply embedded in the populated areas, it is impossible to totally avoid civilian casualties. By now 170 civilians have been killed. Most of them are actual terrorists, but around 52 are regular people. The air force has carried out more than a thousand strikes from the air against terror sites, targeting rocket launching sites, smuggling tunnels, and underground long-range rocket launching pads. So you can see that they have indeed guarded the lives of the civilians of the Gaza strip since the number of casualties is very low, although every single death there of innocent people is sad to us as a nation. But the operation cannot end until the people of Israel are finally safe from the threat of rocket fire!
Basically the world doesn’t really care that Hamas and the other terror organizations in the Gaza strip are trying to kill Israelis. But you will see world reaction because ‘Palestinians’ have been killed in the Gaza Strip. Lengthy Security Counsel anti-Israel sessions will be held at the UN. Obama and other world leaders will be calling for a cease-fire. Demonstrations will be held around the world that will be viciously anti-Israel. They’ll never know how valiantly Israel has tried to protect the people of Gaza while trying to stop the rocket attacks on its own citizens. The world is almost silent about the almost 200,000 Syrians who have been killed. The world will not be silent when people in Gaza are killed.
It doesn’t seem to make sense, does it? But you have to understand that what happens in Israel cannot be viewed from a simply humanistic perspective. Israel is at the centre of the spiritual battle in the world, and satan hates this nation more than any other country on earth. God is the God of Israel, and Yeshua, our Messiah and King, will soon be returning home to Jerusalem. So it is primarily a war in the heavenlies, and that is why it all seems so lop-sided. But our bottom line is this—the Lord God of Israel is with us; He knows the truth; and His protection is REAL! Halleluyah! (A good Hebrew word!)
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