There is a drop in support for allowing illegal immigrants a path to citizenship: 52 percent today, compared to 59 percent in an April 4 Quinnipiac University poll and the lowest level of support so far.

Illegal immigrants should be required to leave, 30 percent of voters say, up from 25 percent four weeks ago.

Creating a path to citizenship for illegal aliens would increase the likelihood of terrorism, 22 percent of voters say, while 66 percent say it will not make a difference. And 23 percent of voters say that the Boston bombing has changed their mind on whether there should be a path to citizenship for such immigrants.

The poll also finds 56 percent of voters oppose state sales taxes on Internet purchases. However, 49 percent of voters over the age of 65 support taxing Internet sales.

Additionally, most Americans favor the death penalty for terrorists. Fifty-nine percent of voters support the death penalty for the alleged Boston Marathon bomber, according to the poll.

Congress mandated last month that the FBI submit to an outside review of its “response to trends of domestic terror attacks since September 11, 2001, including the influence of domestic radicalization,” according to language contained in the 2013 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act passed to avoid a government-wide shutdown.

The funding bill was signed into law on March 26 and allocated $500,000 to the “comprehensive external review,” according to the bill.

“The timing of the review is important, given the reports about radicalization of the two suspects involved in the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks last week,” according of the office of Rep. Frank Wolf (R., Va.), who authored the amendment initiating the review.

The FBI was reportedly warned by Russian intelligence services that Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shootout with the police, was suspected of having terrorist ties.

The FBI is said to have interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 following the tip but determined he did not pose a threat. Critics have called this a stunning intelligence failure in the wake of the Boston attack.

The external authority charged with reviewing the FBI will seek to determine if the law enforcement organization has improved its ability to detect and respond to domestic acts of terror.

“The motivation behind the language is to have fresh eyes on this constantly evolving threat and to improve practices within the Bureau, particularly in light of the terrorist attacks involving radicalized Americans, like the brothers suspected in the Boston attacks and Maj. [Nidal] Hasan at Ft. Hood,” Rep. Wolf said in a statement Monday.

Those reviewing the FBI will also provide “any additional recommendations with regard to FBI intelligence sharing and counterterrorism policy,” according to the legislation.

The Congressional Research Service has reported since the 9/11 terror attacks that “hundreds of individuals have been implicated in more than 50 homegrown violent jihadist plots or attacks,” according to Wolf’s office.

The FBI came under criticism from lawmakers over the weekend for what they say is its failure to have identified Tsarnaev as threat prior to last week’s terrorist bombing.

Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.) warned, “this is the latest in a series of cases like this” during an interview Sunday on Fox News.

King said this is just the latest example of the FBI having been “given information about someone as being potential terrorist, they look at them, and then they don’t take action, and then they [the terrorists] go out and carry out murders after this,” King said. “I’m wondering if there’s something deficient here.”

Tsarnaev is suspected of having ties to Chechen Islamists and possibly al Qaeda.

It came to light over the weekend that Tsarnaev had traveled to Dagestan, a Russian territory that is the home to Islamic terrorists.

There have been at least five terrorists, including the Fort Hood shooter, who have gone on to carry out terrorist attacks following contact with the FBI.

“I really wish there were” answers or even basic contact from the Obama administration, Charles Woods, Tyrone’s father, told the Free Beacon Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill. “If they were forthcoming with information it wouldn’t be necessary to be here.”

Woods, who has been working with members of Congress to pressure the Obama administration to disclose all details surrounding the September 11, 2012 Benghazi attack, said the administration’s silence has been troubling.

“I’d rather be in Hawaii or somewhere,” he said. “But we’re here because we need to be here.”

Woods and several members of Congress held a press conference outside the Capitol Wednesday in an effort to highlight what they say is the Obama administration’s failure to fully disclose the circumstances that led to the deaths of four Americans, including Woods and U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R., Va.) and more than 110 of his colleagues propose to establish a Watergate-style select committee that would be charged with investigating every aspect of the terrorist attack and be able to subpoena key administration officials to testify.

“I know nothing more [about the attack] than what’s been made public. No one has contacted me,” Woods told reporters. “Seven months later, we still don’t know what has happened.”

“We don’t just want another paper report,” Woods said. “We want people who were on the ground” to testify and explain “why they failed to provide support and protection” to Tyrone and others.

“They fought a battle for eight hours and not one airplane, not one armed drone, not one bit of military support [was] given to them” despite the presence of U.S. assets in the region, Woods said. “This is extraordinary and we need to know … who was it that gave the order to stand down.”

Wolf, the committee’s lead sponsor, said it is clear that the American public wants to know more.

“I don’t think the American public is satisfied with the answers we’ve received,” Wolf said. “More importantly, the families [of those killed] are not satisfied.”

“They along with the America public want to know why no one came to the rescue of their loved ones,” Wolf said.

Such a committee would likely summon United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who became the face of the administration’s botched response to the attacks after she appeared on television repeating false talking points in the weekend following the attacks.

Rice claimed the attack was “spontaneous” despite evidence it was coordinated and planned in advance by terrorist operatives.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R., Ala.) told those in attendance that Congress is failing to uphold its constitutional responsibility to fully investigate the circumstances surrounding Benghazi.

Brooks and other lawmakers had pressured Secretary of State John Kerry to provide detailed information about the attacks during a hearing earlier in the day.

“We have made request after request about, for example, just to get the list of the names of the people who were evacuated from Benghazi, and we haven’t even gotten that, much less some of the important questions,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.) said to Kerry during Wednesday’s hearing.

“Mr. Secretary, we think there was a cover-up of some kind of wrongdoing that led this administration to lie to the American people about the nature of the attack immediately after the attack and for a week after that attack,” Rohrabacher added. “We need to have these questions answered.”

Kerry responded that he does not “think anybody lied to anybody,” urging lawmakers to move past the issue.

We got a lot more important things to move on to and get done,” Kerry said.

Brooks expressed outrage at Kerry’s answers and his refusal to promise to investigate Rice’s false statements.

“That is hubris,” Brooks said at the Benghazi press conference. “This is not the way we expect our secretary of state to act. And that is why we need a committee” that has independent investigatory powers.

Kerry’s statements are “adding unnecessary pain and suffering to those who lost loved ones,” Brooks added.

Wolf has petitioned Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) to create a select committee late last year.

While Boehner has not directly responded to Wolf, he has expressed support for further inquiry in to the Benghazi attacks.

“We are determined to get to the truth regarding the terrorist attack in #Benghazi, will not let it be buried in a haze of bureaucracy,” Boehner tweeted earlier today.

The social media app has experienced a “tremendous increase of its use by online jihadis” who have littered Instagram with radical propaganda depicting dead “martyrs” and armed terrorist combatants, according to a recent report issued by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a nonpartisan research organization.

Instagram, which has some 90 million monthly users, is the latest social network to be coopted by Arab extremists who are looking to broadcast their radical ideology across the globe, according to MEMRI.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media networks have been forced to address the issue in recent months. Anti-Semitic terrorist manifestos have also been spotted in online marketplaces affiliated with Apple and Google.

The photos glorify terrorist masterminds such as Osama bin Laden and Anwar Al-Awlaki as well as a slew of lesser-known al Qaeda leaders who have been “martyred” while fighting against the United States and Israel.

Other photo sets include graphic pictures of dead jihadi fighters with captions that read, “The perfect smile!” and “Sins forgiven by the first drop of blood,” according to MEMRI’s investigative report.

One user posting on the Instagram client Statigram posted a picture of someone supposedly murdered by jihadi fighters in Somalia. The caption reads: “Dirty French Kaffir killed by the Mujahideen in Somali.”

MEMRI notes that the presence of such propaganda has increased significantly over the past four months.

“Since MEMRI first began monitoring the site four months ago, there has been a tremendous increase of its use by online jihadis,” the report states. “A common theme of the photos that they post is images of and quotes by al Qaeda leaders such as Osama bin Laden, Anwar Al-Awlaki, Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and many others.”

“Another theme is the glorification of imprisoned jihadis: The Blind Sheikh Omar Abd Al-Rahman, Fort Hood shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan, underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and many others who have successfully attacked Americans,” MEMRI reports.

It is unclear if these types of images directly violate Instagram’s guidelines, though the images of dead bodies could fall under the category of “extreme violence or gore.”

“If we find you sharing prohibited or illegal content, including photographs of extreme violence or gore, your account may be disabled, and we will take appropriate action, which may include reporting you to the authorities,” according to Instagram’s community guidelines.

Users are also encouraged to report offensive materials, though it is unclear if accounts disseminating jihadi propaganda have received complaints. Instagram did not respond to a Free Beacon request for comment about MEMRI’s report.

Some of the more violent images depict camouflaged fighters holding guns to the heads of their victims. Other accounts have posted pictures of armed children.

The Wednesday announcement of the removal of Iran’s Bank Saderat from the E.U.’s sanctions list has caused concern among experts and some on Capitol Hill who warn the E.U.’s decision could erase years of progress on the economic sanctions front.

Bank Saderat is at least the third Iranian bank to have won an E.U. sanctions reprieve since December.

An E.U. court recently ruled that the sanctions against Bank Saderat were “illegal” and ordered they be removed, according to reports in Iran’s state run media.

“The General Court of the European Union consequently ruled that the sanctions imposed against the Iranian bank were illegal and accepted the bank’s request to lift the restrictions,” Iran’s Press TV quoted the bank as saying in a statement.

Western sanctions experts dubbed the move as dangerous.

“This is doing serious damage to the sanction regime that the U.S. has painstakingly assembled over the last several years with the goal of rolling back Iran’s ability to leverage its financial institutions for its nuclear program, as well as its ability to finance terrorist organizations across the world,” said Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the Treasury Department.

“The timing of this is particularly strange given the report issued yesterday about the Bulgaria bombing,” added Schanzer, currently vice president of research for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Just as the Europeans are acknowledging Hezbollah’s role in attacking a target in Europe, the Europeans end the sanctions on a bank known to finance Hezbollah. Moves like this will kill the sanctions regime.”

Iran’s state-run media reported European lawyers attempted to ensure the bank, one of Iran’s largest, remained blacklisted.

“The E.U. court ruling in support of Bank Saderat came despite the extensive efforts made by the union lawyers and legal advisors to maintain the sanctions,” Iran’s state-controlled Fars News Agency reported Wednesday.

Saderat was initially sanctioned during the George W. Bush administration in 2006.

“Bank Saderat facilitates Iran’s transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars to Hizballah and other terrorist organizations each year,” said Stuart Levey, former under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in a 2006 Treasury Department press release. “We will no longer allow a bank like Saderat to do business in the American financial system, even indirectly.”

Additionally, Iran’s Bank Mellat won an appeal last week in a European court, which agreed sanctions imposed against it were unwarranted, according to reports.

Sanctions were initially imposed on the bank by the E.U. in 2010 on the grounds that the financial institution was “facilitating Iran’s nuclear program,” according to Fox Business.

The E.U. lifted sanctions on a third Iranian bank in December, according to Fars.

The European Union’s highest judicial authority also overturned sanctions against Iran’s Bank Sina in December.

“On Dec. 11, E.U. court judge Irena Pelikanova (from the Czech Republic) informed the E.U. and Sina Bank lawyers of the verdict she issued after 20 months of precisely studying the causes of the sanctions against the bank and the documents presented at court’s hearing sessions,” said Sina’s managing director Abdolnasser Hemati, according to Fars.

The removal of the E.U.’s sanctions could allow these banks to continue bankrolling Tehran’s illicit activities, experts warned.

“The European Union had levied sanctions back in 2008 against Bank Saderat and Bank Melli because of their involvement in Iran’s proliferation activities,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser on Iran and Iraq. “The sanctions had been effective. The court’s decision to lift the sanctions—if obeyed—would pump adrenalin into Iran’s nuclear program and hasten conflict.”

Bank Melli remains under sanctions.

The E.U. rollback also reveals Europe’s hesitance to take a consistently tough stance against terror, Rubin said.

“The irony here is that the European Union for years refused to categorize Hezbollah as a terrorist group because it believed Hezbollah’s PR and denied proof of Hezbollah’s terror culpability,” he said. “That might change because of the Hezbollah attack in Bulgaria. What the E.U. court is signaling is that it will accept no proof unless innocents die.”

One senior congressional GOP aide who tracks sanctions called the decisions by E.U. courts “troubling.”

“It’s a very troubling development that we have been tracking closely—the Obama administration has long resisted congressional calls to simply blacklist Iran’s entire financial sector but the E.U. developments might force our hand,” said the aide.

Vice President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has raised the possibility that the U.S. could soon negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program.

Obama administration critics argue that moves such as this are also undermining Western sanctions.

“The more this [sanctions] thing becomes clearly a fools errand, that they’re not going to be actually preventing the bomb from getting into the Iranians hands, we’re going to see intensifying pressure to cut deals and do separate peace agreements with the Iranians,” said Frank Gaffney, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.

“This is part of the trend that will accelerate in the future,” added Gaffney, who is now the director of the Center for Security Policy.

Bulgaria could clear the way for Europe to finally designate Hezbollah as a terror group by officially pointing its finger at Hezbollah—and by proxy Iran, which sponsors the terror group.

Bulgarian investigators revealed they could link the terrorists to Hezbollah and Iran.

“There is data showing the financing and connection between Hezbollah and the two suspects,” Reuters quoted Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov as saying Tuesday.

“What can be established as a well-grounded assumption is that the two persons whose real identity has been determined belonged to the military wing of Hezbollah,” Tsvetanov said.

Israel and the United States suggested Hezbollah was to blame for the attack soon after it occurred last year.

The revelation of Hezbollah’s involvement in the coordinated attack could pave the way for European nations to finally blacklist the terror group, which is still permitted to fundraise and transport money in much of the European Union.

“The announcement comes in the midst of American efforts to convince the European Union to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group and to ban the organization from conducting business on the continent,” the Israel Project (TIP) said in a statement Tuesday morning.

“France and Germany have broadly rejected U.S. appeals to blacklist the group,” TIP stated. “Their objections may now become strained as Bulgarian officials outline evidence that Hezbollah committed a terrorist act on the sovereign territory of an E.U. member state.”

Iran continues to deny involvement in the attack.

The Bulgarian investigation found that the perpetrators were carrying fake U.S. driver’s licenses, according to Reuters.

“All three people involved in the attack had fake U.S. driving licenses that were printed in Lebanon,” according to the report. “The two suspects with Canadian and Australian passports had been living in Lebanon, one since 2006 and the other since 2010.”

Experts have warned in the past that Bulgaria could be a target for terrorists.

“Bulgaria has long been viewed as a potential target for terrorists, in part because of its increasingly warm bilateral relationship with the United States,” TIP stated in its release on the commission’s findings. “The two countries enjoy close military ties, Bulgaria having contributed over 400 troops to the U.S.-led campaign in Iraq and over 600 personnel to the NATO mission in Afghanistan.”

The works of terrorist mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki are easily purchased in print, CD, and on Kindle e-readers via Amazon’s site.

Al-Awlaki’s materials are not being sold by Amazon directly but via third parties in the Amazon Marketplace, which acts as a clearinghouse for books, videos, and CDs. Amazon acts as an intermediary and facilitates the sale, taking a portion of the proceeds in the process.

Amazon has failed to remove the writings following multiple appeals from United States terrorism experts who argue that the international online store is aiding the spread of terrorism.

Al-Awlaki, who served as al Qaeda’s chief recruiter and planner until he was killed in 2010 by a U.S. drone strike, has inspired jihadi terrorists across the globe with his writings and lectures, which continue to be widely disseminated in the Arab world.

Al-Awlaki preached to three of the 9/11 hijackers, according to reports. He also helped plan the unsuccessful 2009 Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner and had extensive contact with the Fort Hood shooter prior to the 2009 attack that killed 13 people.

Al-Awlaki’s writings and lectures have long been bootlegged and circulated to young Islamic extremists who are looking for direction.

One of his final works was called “44 Ways to Support Jihad” and has been described as “a practical point-by-point guide to pursuing or supporting holy war.”

This step-by-step terrorist manual can be purchased along with al-Awlaki’s other works on Amazon.

Jihadi shoppers can purchase a CD titled “Allah Is Preparing Us for Victory: Collection of Writings” by Imam Anwar Al-Awlaki for $45. The disc includes “44 Ways to Support Jihad,” as well as the “famous” eponymous lecture.

Amazon includes a description of the contents:

This e-Book is a collection of the most popular published writings by the controversial Imam Anwar al-Awlaki (aka Awlaqi). The first is the famous lecture: “Allah is Preparing Us for Victory”. The second is an underground document obtained by investigators in February of 2009, entitled “44 Ways to Support Jihad.” The third document is entitled, “Method of Establishing Khilafah,” an essay by Anwar Al-Awlaki. The fourth is called, “A Call to Jihad.” Finally, included is an intelligence brief on Anwar al-Awlaki.

A four set audio book titled “The Lives of the Prophets” is also listed on Amazon but is currently unavailable.

Amazon offers an electronic copy of al-Awlaki’s State of the Ummah, which serves as a call to arms for would-be terrorists, for reading on the Kindle.

“And what is the matter with you, that you fight not in the cause of Allah,” al-Awlaki states in the book, which is a transcription of one of his 2009 lectures.

“In the lecture, Anwar al-Awlaki gives the audience a much needed reminder, using the Quran and Hadith [statements made by the Islamic prophet Muhammed], to give a solution to the humiliated Ummah [Islamic nation],” the book says. “Remind us that ‘our honour [sic] is in our religion.’”

Terrorism experts from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) have tried for months to pressure Amazon to remove al-Awlaki’s teachings, which they argue could be used to promote terrorist attacks against the U.S.

However, the online site has yet to heed their call despite a series of e-mail messages between Amazon and MEMRI earlier this month.

A MEMRI representative first informed Amazon in late December that al-Awlaki’s radical manifestos were being sold.

Amazon executive customer relations representative Janel Smith offered a generic reply, according to the e-mail correspondence.

“Thanks for sending these [links] to me; I’ll make sure they’re forwarded to the correct team internally,” Smith wrote, according to the email chain obtained by the Free Beacon. “We appreciate your business and hope to see you again soon. Thanks again for the information!”

MEMRI followed up with Amazon several weeks later to see if action had been taken to remove the writings.

Smith again offered a generic reply.

“I can confirm that your feedback was passed to the appropriate departments. However, I don’t have any more information for you,” Smith wrote to MEMRI.

“If you do have any other suggestions or feedback about a product listed on our website, you can submit feedback at the bottom of every product detail page,” Smith added. “Just look for the blue ‘Feedback’ or ‘Suggestion Box,’ or you can contact our customer service by clicking the ‘Contact Us’ button from any help page on our website.”

Amazon did not respond to multiple Free Beacon requests for comment.

The organization’s guidelines regarding such content are vague.

“If Amazon.com determines that the content of an item is prohibited, we may summarily remove or alter it without returning any fees the listing has incurred,” the organization states. “Amazon.com reserves the right to make judgments about whether or not content is appropriate.”

“Some items that may not be sold include any products which may lead to the production of an illegal item or illegal activity,” the guidelines state, though it is unclear if that pertains to terrorist activities

MEMRI maintains Amazon could be culpable in arming would-be terrorists with jihadi ideology.

Executive director of MEMRI Steven Stalinsky says his organization warned Amazon that al-Awlaki’s materials have motivated terrorists to take action.

“We informed them that there had been many cases of Western youth arrested over the past year with these same publications,” he said.

Asked if Amazon has a First Amendment right to sell such controversial materials, Stalinsky sidestepped the argument, instead insisting the company has a moral responsibility.

“There’s pure text in here calling for violence and jihad against the West,” he said. “There’s a call to action in here and there’s multiple cases of people being arrested with these materials involved in attempted terrorist attacks, and they’re making it really easy for someone to get this material.” 

“They should be more responsible,” he said.

The IDF titled its rejoinder “How Hamas and Islamic Jihad Use Journalism as a Cover for Terrorism.” The title is a jab at the Times, which had headlined its story “Using War as Cover to Target Journalists.”

The Times claimed that several Palestinians who were killed in precision missile strikes last week during Operation Pillar of Defense were in fact journalists and that the IDF was behaving similarly to the Syrian regime by using wartime to target members of the media.

When challenged by a Buzzfeed reporter, Carr defended his accusations by saying that other organizations had made the same claim.

“The Committee to Protect Journalists, which I treat as a reliable, primary source in these matters, identified them as journalists,” Carr stated. Yet the CPJ’s report cited Al-Aqsa TV, a media arm of Hamas, in claiming the terrorists were journalists, meaning that Carr’s “primary source” was Hamas itself.

Carr also told Buzzfeed that despite having not verified the accuracy of the claims he was standing by his story.

The terror activities of the three Palestinians Carr identifies as journalists—Mohamed Abu Aisha, Hussam Salama, and Mahmoud al-Kumi—are detailed in the IDF’s rebuttal.

Aisha, a member of Islamic Jihad, is shown in a picture wearing an Islamic Jihad uniform. Salama and al-Kumi worked for Al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas propaganda outfit classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The IDF reported they were also Hamas operatives, paid by Hamas, and identified by Hamas websites as jihadists who are “part of the resistance.”

The IDF also admonished the New York Times for incentivizing the practice by terrorists of masquerading as journalists in order to avoid being targeted.

“[I]f the clear line between terrorists and journalists is blurred and there is no standard for the definition of ‘journalist’ … it is likely that Palestinian terrorists will continue using journalism as a cover for terrorism,” the IDF wrote.

The Times has yet to retract Carr’s story.

Leibovich also discussed an early morning attack that claimed the life of senior Hamas operative Ahmed Jabari.

“As you heard, our first target was a vehicle in central part of Gaza,” Leibovich said. ”Inside the vehicle was Ahmed Jabari, born in 1960, the head of the Hamas military wing who was involved in numerous terror attacks on Israelis, as well as [Israeli soldier] Gilad Shalit’s kidnapping. This is a man who has a lot of Israeli blood on his hands.”

The Israeli Defense Forces targeted 20 different terrorist sites throughout the day, according to Leibovich.

“The second phase of the operation was an aerial attack, which targeted 20 different targets, all underground, which served as launching pads for various kinds of rockets,” she explained. “Among these rockets were Fajr-5 rockets, Iranian-made weapons which can reach a lot further than the ordinary Grad missile.”

All options remain “on the table,” including an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza.

Israel has “no intentions” of either stopping the attacks on Gaza or moving troops into the Sinai region despite declarations from Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood-controlled government that aggression against the Palestinians must stop, Leibovich said.

Leibovich made it clear that Israel will no longer stand by as terrorists fire hundreds of rockets into communities and military outposts across Israel’s southern region.

“The focus of the operation is crippling the terror organizations while defending Israeli civilians,” she said. “It’s not natural for an Israeli—for anyone—to live in a shelter for such a long time.”

“This situation obviously cannot continue,” Leibovich said. “This is why we’ve launched this operation. We’ve reached the point where enough is enough.”

The Israel Defense Forces opened Operation Pillar of Defense with an airstrike on a car carrying the head of Hamas’ military wing Ahmed Jabri. More airstrikes quickly followed and are believed to have targeted other top Gaza-based terrorists and their weapons caches. Update (12:25 PM): The IDF has released video of the strike.

An IDF spokesman stated on Twitter that the opening round of airstrikes targeted 20 sites and sought to destroy stockpiles of longer-range Iranian-supplied missiles that Hamas has smuggled into Gaza. One report stated that the air force struck a warehouse containing Iranian-supplied Fajr missiles.

U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro reiterated ”Israel’s right to defend itself and its citizens from these attacks” three days ago. The Obama administration has yet to comment on these latest events.

Update (11:28 AM): Israeli media are reporting that the IDF is sending emergency call-up notices to reservists. IDF General Yoav Mordechaitold Channel 2 news ground troops may be sent into Gaza: ”There are preparations, and if we are required to, the option of a entry by ground is available.”

Israeli artillery has joined the air force in hitting targets in Gaza and eyewitnesses report that multiple Israeli naval vessels have appeared along the coast of Gaza.

Update (8:09 PM): The New York Times was unsure of how to cover the attacks:

Despite the launching of more than 800 rockets from Gaza into Israel in 2012—including hundreds in the past week—the Times expressed uncertainty about whether any rockets have been fired at all. The Israeli military operation that commenced today is “in response to what Israel called repeated rocket attacks,” according to the Times.

The Times is also uncertain about the nature of Hamas, a U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist organization. The Times reports that Hamas is a “militant organization regarded by Israel as a terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction.”