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Day 43 – Hamas Violates Ceasefire, Launches Rocket Barrage

by TheTower.org Staff |

The forty third day of Operation Protective Edge is over.

The Tower today covered the violation of the 24 hour ceasefire by Hamas. Three rockets were fired towards Beersheba and Netivot in southern Israel in the middle of the afternoon. Israel retaliated immediately.

The day ended with more rocket fire. Hamas launched a barrage of missiles into central and southern Israel – according to Ha’aretz it was at least 50 – in the late hours of night. According to late reports the barrage may have been triggered by an attempt by Israel to kill terrorist mastermind Mohammad Deif.

Israel21C reports on former Apple executive Eric Sirkin who dreamed of “building a multinational company in Israel.” He hasn’t managed to do that but through his venture capital fund has helped launch a number of startups, including Lab Pixies, which turned out to be Google’s first Israeli acquisition.

The announcement that Israel had broken up an attempted coup against the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has had repercussions. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas  announced that he will investigate the charges. Elhanan Miller of The Times of Israel wrote later in the day that Abbas reaction showed that he was “intimately acquainted with the evidence,” and apparently convinced by it.

The FAA issued a ban on American planes overflying Syria. A possible reason for the ban is a recently released study that claims that there are extremist groups in Syria in possession of hundreds of portable anti-aircraft weapons.

In recent testimony, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process, Robert Serry defied the conventional wisdom that Hamas needs to be disarmed as a prerequisite for peace. Serry called for the rebuilding of Gaza but didn’t say that Hamas needs to be disarmed. Administration officials, European foreign ministers, influential American newspapers and even the Quartet all stipulate that Hamas must be disarmed.

The Israeli financial website Globes reported that Israel was one of the most sought after investment targets in 2013. Among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states Israel, based on its foreign direct investment (FDI) to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio ranked behind only Luxembourg, Ireland and Chile as being an attractive target for investments.

Writing recently in The New Republic, Alexander Joffe and Asaf Romirowsky argue that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has become “effectively a branch of Hamas.” The two authors say that it’s time dissolve UNRWA and transfer its responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority in the hopes “of strengthening the PA practically, politically, and in the eyes of Gaza’s residents.”

[Photo: Israel Defense Forces / WikiCommons ]

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