Despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that was meant to come into force at 9 pm last night, by 9:30, a barrage of rockets was fired from Gaza into Israel. Most of the night was quiet, but the rocket fire resumed at 7:30 am today, when a Qassam rocket hit a public building in the Eshkol Regional Council area. There were no casualties, but the building was damaged and shattered glass littered the ground.
A Grad rocket was fired against Ashkelon at 1 am. The rocket was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery and two other rockets hit open ground. Altogether 14 rockets and mortar shells have been fired from Gaza against Israel since the ceasefire supposedly came into effect.
Despite the incidents, the defense establishment believes that if Hamas succeeds in restoring quiet and preventing more rocket fire, this will end the current round of violence. It is assumed that neither Israel nor Hamas have any interest in an escalation at this time. They key question at the moment is the extent to which Hamas can control the Gaza Strip and prevent small organizations from firing rockets against Israel and continuing the clashes.
One assessment attributes the continuing rocket fire to the one-hour time difference between Israel and Gaza, where there is no daylight savings time. It is therefore possible that in Gaza, it was believed that the cease-fire was to come into effect at what was 10 pm Israel time.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 22, 2011
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2011