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Rockets Raining Down on Israel

New video shows Palestinian militants firing shells into Israel

Smoke trails off rocket fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza Strip towards Israel, Oct. 24, 2012 / AP
November 12, 2012

A video posted to YouTube on Sunday claims to show a Palestinian militant group launching 107mm rockets into Israeli territory late Sunday as violence along Israel’s border ramps up after months of relative calm.

The video depicts multiple rockets being launched at "Zionist sites" from several areas and contains the official seal of the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the militant group Palestinian Islamist Jihad.

The video provides further evidence that Palestinian militants have greatly increased their attacks on Israel in recent days.

Violence between Israel and terrorist forces has substantially increased since Saturday, when Palestinians fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) jeep that was canvassing Israel’s border area with Gaza.

The IDF said more than 121 rockets have hit Israel since Saturday Nov. 10. The White House has remained silent about the attacks.

"It's worth noting that Hamas has been previously documented on several instances firing rockets at Israel," the IDF noted in a statement to the Washington Free Beacon that included video of Hamas militants firing rockets at Israel from homes in Gaza.

"Hamas knows that at best, Obama is all bark and no bite and at worst, is actively hostile to Israel's right to self defense," said former Pentagon adviser on Iraq Michael Rubin. "Now that Obama is reelected, Hamas feels it’s in the driver's seat when it comes to Middle East policy."

Rubin said Hamas and other terrorists see an opening.

"Terrorists always try to gauge the tipping point, that is how far they can go before they must fear a reprisal," he said. "Here, they can watch Obama's inaction toward Syria and conclude there is no tipping point."

Four Israeli soldiers were wounded in Saturday’s tank attack. This prompted an Israeli military response that killed four Palestinian militants.

"Two days ago, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip dramatically escalated their attacks against Israel—firing an anti-tank missile at an IDF jeep as well as launching barrages of rockets at Israeli civilians," the IDF said in a separate statement.

Violence has only increased since then and fears are mounting that a violent tit-for-tat between Israel and its enemies could lead to a full-scale war in a volatile region that is still reeling from a series of bloody revolutions.

Syrian militants joined the battle Sunday when they fired mortars on an Israeli neighborhood and a nearby military outpost.

Israel responded to Palestinian violence in Gaza early Sunday by targeting "a weapon manufacturing facility, two weapon storage facilities and two rocket launching sites in the northern Gaza Strip," according to the IDF.

This prompted militants to fire dozens more rockets into southern Israel. Several of these rockets struck the town of Sderot, which often faces the brunt of militant attacks due to its proximity to the border.

The violence has forced more than one million Israeli citizens to take cover in bomb shelters, according to The Israel Project.

Sunday’s barrage led the Israeli Air Force to target "a tunnel and a weapons storage facility in northern Gaza, as well as a rocket launching site in southern Gaza," the IDF announced.

The attacks show that Israel’s "Iron Dome" missile defense system is ill-equipped to defend the state from heavy swarms of rockets. The U.S.-subsidized system has a higher success rate shooting down individual attacks.