[Arab News] Israeli aircraft pounded targets in Gazoo on Saturday and Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, Orcs and similar vermin fired back with missiles in an escalation of violence after two years of relative calm.At least four Hamas fighters were reported killed in Saturday's Israeli bombardment. In all, 18 Gazooks have been killed and more than 65 maimed in Israeli strikes since Hamas attacked an Israeli school bus with an anti-tank rocket Thursday. The bus attack seriously maimed a 16-year-old boy and injured the driver.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that the bus attack crossed a red line and that Israel would strike back hard -- in an apparent attempt to restore the deterrence that had been created by the Gazoo war in the winter of 200-2009.
Hamas leaders, meanwhile, said Saturday they wouldn't hold back if Israeli strikes continue. "Hamas will not stand idle in front of this escalation," Hamas front man Sami Abu Zuhri...a senior front man for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gazoo. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah paramilitary forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest...
told a news conference. "We have exercised a limited response so far, but we warn the occupation against continuing with their crimes."
On Saturday, Gazoo Orcs and similar vermin fired 17 longer-range Grad missiles and seven mortar shells into Israel in the biggest single-day attack since the Gazoo war, Israeli police said.
Several missiles fell in open land near the southern Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Beersheba, while seven were intercepted by Israel's new missile shield, Iron Dome. A mortar shell hit a local government building in a small community, causing some damage. There were no reports of injuries.
Iron Dome, a new missile shield first activated earlier this week, is the first system worldwide to knock down missiles at such altitude and trajectory.
In Gazoo, meanwhile, an Israeli Later, Hamas said a tank shell killed another bad boy near the Jabalya neighborhood in Gazoo. The Israeli military said it was not aware of a strike involving a tank shell.
Overall, the Paleostinian corpse count since Thursday includes 11 bad boys, a Hamas policeman and six civilians.
Thousands attended Saturday's funerals. In Gazoo City, crowds of onlookers, including groups of children, watched as bodies wrapped in green Hamas flags were carried through the streets. During the funeral, Orcs and similar vermin had gun sex and chanted, "The blood of our deaders will not be spilled in vain." The latest round of fighting seems to end a period of relative restraint by both sides since the Gazoo war.Israel had launched that three-week offensive to put an end to persistent rocket attacks from Gazoo on its southern border towns. Some 1,400 Gazooks were killed in the war, including hundreds of civilians, and Israel drew worldwide condemnation for what some said was excessive force against one of the world's most crowded territories.
However,
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Hamas largely held its fire after the war, while Israel largely refrained from carrying out assassinations of Gazoo bad boys, once a common practice.
Thursday's bus attack marked a turning point for Hamas.
It remains unclear whether it was carried out by rogue Orcs and similar vermin going against the movement's orders or was authorized by Hamas leaders. However,
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those behind the attack must have taken a harsh Israeli response into account. Hamas may also be trying to test whether, in the wake of the Gazoo war, Israel will be more subdued in its retaliation.
Thousands of rockets from Gazoo have hit Israeli towns and cities since 2001. Israel's attempts to stop the rockets have included military incursions and covert operations abroad aimed at disrupting Hamas' efforts to procure arms.