Tag: Hamas

Wellington has yet to condemn Hamas’ rocket attacks or other actions. This has the New Zealand Jewish community and supporters of Israel worried. 

AIJAC made a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Intelligence and Security into the relisting of the Hamas’ Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas Brigades) as a terrorist organisation by the Australian Government.

There are no more than 15 seconds from the moment the rocket warning siren sounds until a projectile impacts on the city, during which residents have to get themselves – and their families – into bomb shelters or reinforced rooms in their homes.

The importance of the Cairo discussions can be found elsewhere: the shift of the PLO and affiliated organisations towards Hamas.

If Hamas does reach a long-term ceasefire deal with Israel, the terror group insists it will be obligated to cease rocket and mortar fire, but nothing more.

Hamas’ desire to terrorise Israel and thus be relevant, and the fact that Iran is also funding Hamas and wants it to be a thorn in Israel’s side, is part of a larger struggle in which each side seeks some strategic gain...

Israel does have a short to medium term strategy for Gaza, which like most other strategies contains inherent contradictions and has to be relevant in an extremely complex situation.

This Update deals with the latest round of violence centred around Gaza over Wednesday night and Thursday, which saw more than 200 rockets and mortars fired into Israel, several Israelis injured, and Israeli counterstrikes on Hamas targets which led to three Palestinians being killed.

Although not in the headlines quite as often as the “terror tunnels” Hamas and associated terrorist groups in the Gaza strip construct into Israel to kill or kidnap soldiers and civilians, the subterranean tunnel economy between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt is just as important and just as dangerous.

Over 170 rockets and mortars have been fired by Hamas and other terrorist groups into Israel over the past 24 hours