The Israeli attack on Gaza - reports

UPDATE FROM GAZA

I have not been able to listen quite so extensively to live updates from Gaza.

However, Harry Fear has reported that things have gone very quiet in the last few hours.

In his opinion this could be due to two factors:

• For some reason the Israelis may be starting to back down, or
• They are regrouping and/or testing the waters before another attack.

His feeling, and hope is the former; this is based on the following information -

• Greater levels of retaliation from the Palestians evidenced by:
• Their proven abiity to send missiles that have reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
• Other successful military operations that have rendered it more difficult for the Israelis to reoccupy Palestine – the Israelis themselves have said it would be expensive
• There are unconfirmed (but credible) reports that resistance fighter have shot down an IDF fighter jet and captured a pilot.

The coming hours and days will tell.

I will update this when I can.

Palestinians shoot down Israeli F-16 fighter jet in Gaza: Hamas

Palestinian fighters have downed an Israeli warplane flying over the Gaza Strip as retaliatory rocket attacks from the enclave continue to sound alarms across Israel.

Press TV,

16 November, 2012

According to Hamas sources, the Israeli F-16 fighter jet was shot down on Friday.

Meanwhile, several Israelis were injured after three rockets fired from Gaza hit the Zionist settlement of Gush Etzion in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Palestinian missiles and rockets have also hit the other Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Eshkol, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Be'er Sheva.

In Tel Aviv, a rocket hit a commercial district while a second rocket landed 200 meters away from the American Embassy. It is the first time that Tel Aviv has come under attack in decades. Three Israeli soldiers have been injured in a rocket attack in Eshkol.

Hospitals across Israel are now in state of emergency.

Palestinians have fired over 550 rockets and missiles into Israel since Wednesday after Tel Aviv launched a major military strike against the besieged Palestinian territory, killing scores of people, including women and children.

The Israeli Army says it has hit more than 600 targets in Gaza during the past three days.

According to Israeli sources, the Iron Dome missile shield has only intercepted one-fifth of the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, residents of the besieged Gaza Strip say they are getting text messages warning of military escalation as reports suggest that Israeli military forces are preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza.