Gaza Resident: We Are Biting the Hand That Feeds Us

Monday, July 14, 2014 |  Israel Today Staff

While observers of the latest round of violence between Israel and Hamas are certain to hear many negative claims against the Jewish state, the residents of Gaza are also quietly expressing ire at their terrorist overlords.

“Everybody here hates Hamas,” Gaza taxi drive Abu Ali told the Associated Press. “But they’re too afraid to say so publicly. Our food comes from Israel but what we give them in return is rockets — rockets that don’t even make little holes in the ground.”

Abu Ali, as he indicated, is not alone. In the upcoming issue of Israel Today Magazine, we spoke to a young Gaza-based peace activist who said he wished Israel would just reoccupy the coastal enclave so that local residents could be rid of Hamas rule.

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As of Monday afternoon, Hamas and its terrorist allies had fired nearly 1,000 rockets and missiles into Israel over the past 10 days, resulting in an ever harsher Israeli response.

Early Monday morning, Israel struck dozens of terrorist installations in northern Gaza, an area the IDF had warned local civilians to evacuate on Sunday.

And while Monday was relatively quiet compared to last week, several volleys of missiles were aimed at Tel Aviv and its environs. All of the missiles that were expected to hit populated areas were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Israel also used a Patriot missile battery to intercept an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that made its way from Gaza to the nearby coastal city of Ashkelon. Hamas claimed that it had launched a fleet of six UAVs, but Israelis laughed off the assertion, noting that if they can accurately detect and track an incoming rocket, they would have noticed this Hamas “air force.”

Hamas was also busy doing damage to its own people beyond inviting military reprisals. One of the rockets fired during the morning house struck the main cable carrying electricity from Israel to the Gaza Strip, leaving 70,000 local residents without power.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Israel Electric Company to not bother fixing the cable for the time being to avoid placing its technicians in harm’s way.

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