OPERATION DEFENSIVE EDGE DAY 1: IDF Source Says Hamas Will Target Tel Aviv Overnight. (LIVE UPDATES)

OPERATION DEFENSIVE EDGE DAY 1: IDF Source Says Hamas Will Target Tel Aviv Overnight. (LIVE UPDATES From The Algemeiner )


Follow here for The Algemeiner’s continued live updates on the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Our report on the launch of Israel’s Operation Defensive Edge can be found here.

For a report on Israel’s targeting of a top Hamas commander on Tuesday click here.

For details on the rocket attacks that led to Israel’s operation click here.

For more information please check our homepage.

0:42 am –  The Times of Israel reports: Speaking at a conference on peace talks organized by Haaretz, the European Union’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, says that “indiscriminate shooting of rockets against civilians can never be a legitimate response, no matter what your grievances.”

10:35 am – The Israel Project has compiled a good synopsis of Hamas’s outrageous demands over the past 48 hours as part of a possible ceasefire agreement:

In addition to demanding all sorts of concessions from Israel – prisoner releases, lifting restrictions on Gaza, etc – Hamas has also in the last 48 hours demanded a bunch of non-starters from Egypt and the Palestinian Authority. Just in the last 48 hours, they’ve demanded, as part of a ceasefire:

(1) That Palestinian Authority transfers money to pay for Hamas government employees, which wasn’t happening when the Fatah/Hamas unity govt was stable, and definitely won’t happen now.
(2) That Egypt ease movement through the Egyptian-Gaza border, which is a non-starter because the Egyptians fear that jihadists will use the transit in and out of the Sinai Peninsula.
(3) That Israel fully lift security-based import/export restrictions on the Gaza Strip, which is a non-starter as long as Iran continues trying to deliver advanced missiles to Hamas.
(4) That Israel release a bunch of prisoners arrested after the murder of the three Israeli teens, which the Israelis won’t do because they’re seeking to deter future kidnappings/murders.

Just to be clear and explicit about how insane this is: Hamas has declared they’ll keep firing on Israeli civilians until Cairo and Ramallah make a bunch of concessions to them, which Israel has no power over.

Even if those demands weren’t non-starters – and they are – how could Netanyahu going to convince Sisi to let jihadists into the Sinai, or convince Abbas to release precious PA funds to his rivals in Hamas?

1o:19 am – Israeli Economy Minister, Naftali Bennett, was shoved and punched by attendees as he exited the Haaretz “Peace Conference” on Monday. The minister had verbally sparred with hecklers at several points in his address.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Bennett “yelled ‘who hit me?’ but was pushed out of the room by his bodyguards.”

10:17 am – A senior Israeli army (IDF) source told Army radio on Monday that Hamas will likely try to hit Tel Aviv overnight with 80-km range Grad rockets, like in 2012’s Operation Defensive Shield.

Municipal officials in Tel Aviv and neighboring Givatiyim in Israel’s Gush Dan region instructed residents in homes and apartment buildings to clear out and prepare private and public bomb shelters and protected spaces.

10:13 am - Hamas has fired over 130 rockets at Israeli civilians since last night. In response, the IDF has targeted approximately 150 terror sites in Gaza, the IDF says.