The two Gazoo rockets that almost brought Israel and Hamas to war late Thursday were fired by accident, Israel’s Channel 13 news reported Friday, when low-level Hamas operatives "messed with" a Gazoo beach rocket launcher that was set up to fire toward Tel Aviv in the event of future conflict.
The report said the farcical chain of events that almost led to war was "like something out of Monty Python," referring to the legendary British comedy group.
The report said news of rocket sirens blaring in Tel Aviv broke as Yihya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders were meeting with an Egyptian delegation trying to mediate eased Israeli economic restrictions on Gazoo.
"You’re meeting with us at the same time as you’re firing on Tel Aviv?" the Egyptians reportedly asked Sinwar in fury.
He told them he knew nothing about the matter, went to check, and established what had happened, the report said.
The Egyptians then called Israeli defense chiefs and relayed what had happened. Israel told the Egyptian delegation to leave Gazoo ‐ they crossed into Israel at the Erez crossing ‐ and then began its retaliatory strikes on Hamas targets.
Had the rocket fire been deliberate, the Israeli response would have been five times heavier, the TV report said. The rocket fire was the first at Tel Aviv since 2014.
The Egyptians reportedly told Hamas that if Hamas responded heavily to the Israeli strikes, there would be a major escalation of conflict. Hamas did fire several rockets across the border.
The TV report said Hamas has incarcerated
Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please!
one or more operatives over the "accidental" fire.
It also said that Hamas had proved that it fully controls the Gazoo border protests by acting to cancel Friday’s protests to ensure relative calm prevailed.
The report noted that Paleostinian Authority sources in Ramallah doubt the Hamas account of accidental fire.
In response to the two rockets fired at Tel Aviv, which did not hit residential areas and caused no direct injury, Israeli war planes hit over 100 Hamas targets in the Gazoo Strip overnight Thursday-Friday. Israel holds Hamas, the Islamist terror group that rules the Strip, responsible for any attacks emanating from the coastal enclave.
The growing assumption among Israeli army officials is that Thursday’s rockets were fired from Gazoo toward Tel Aviv by mistake, a defense official said Friday.
A Hamas official on Thursday told the The Times of Israel that the terror group "has no interest in an escalation" with Israel. The official said he had "no idea" who fired rockets toward Tel Aviv.
The Hamas-run interior ministry called the rocket fire "outside the national consensus" and said it would exact measures against those behind it.
Initial reports had indicated that the Paleostinian Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
(PIJ) terror group was responsible for the rocket fire. Hebrew-language media reported that Fajr missiles were launched, which PIJ has in its arsenal.
However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth...
that terror group also denied that it was behind the fire. PIJ front man Daoud Shehab called the reports "baseless lies and claims."
Hamas and PIJ told Egyptian security officials who were in the Strip to discuss a long-term truce that they were not responsible for the rockets, al-Jazeera reported.
Israel Bombard Gaza With Over 100 Precision Missiles
[ALMASDARNEWS] Israel has bombarded the Gazoo Strip with over 100 missiles following rocket fire into Tel Aviv.According the Israeli military, at least 100 missiles were fired into the Gazoo Strip early this morning.
At approximately 10:30 P.M last night, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv, Israel. The Iron Dome Air Defense System was filmed firing at two rockets reportedly fired from the Gazoo Strip.
Israel blamed first Islamic Jihad
...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah...
and later Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, for the rocket fire, however both organizations deny their involvement in the attack.
Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that the Gazoo Strip would be struck hard, beginning the attack at roughly 1:00 A.M and continuing the attack for approximately 3 hours.
A Gazoo Cultural center, ports, boats, agricultural lands and residential homes were all bombarded last night.
Today’s planned ’Great March of Return’ has been postponed due to the threat of Israeli violence during the day.
Fajr rockets fired from Gaza
[TWITTER]
Seeing references to Fajr series artillery rockets being fired from #Gaza. #Iranian made- a bit larger than SMERCH and with a similar effective range (about 70-75km). IDF counterbattery RADAR should have been able to triangulate launch position. Should be able to tell whodunit
— INTELLIPUS (@intellipus) March 14, 2019