Hamas Shoots at Israel and Misses

(Gaza Strip) An errant Israeli artillery round killed seven Palestinian civilians yesterday. The Israelis had targeted a rocket-launching placement but the shell landed 400 yards away, killing civilians picnicking on the beach. Israel called the incident an accident. Hamas called it a massacre and declared open warfare against Israel. Consequently, Hamas retaliated.

The Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for at least 15 of the rockets fired after midnight, as well as a barrage of mortar bombs. The attacks caused no casualties, and the Israeli army said nearly all of them appeared to land inside Gaza.

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On Saturday morning, Hamas said it had fired rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported. There were no immediate reports in Israel that any of the rockets had landed in Israeli territory.

Now, I'm not a military tactician but still I have to question the competency of the Hamas terrorist forces. The Israelis accidently missed their target by several hundred yards and, sadly, civilians died but, at least, they came close. Hamas, on the other hand, shoots at a country and apparently misses with 15 rockets and a barrage of mortar shells.

Maybe it's an unfair comparison but I'm reminded of the first night of the Gulf War when American stealth aircraft bombed important targets in Baghdad and Saddam's air defense forces started shooting willy-nilly into the sky. Like Hamas' retaliation, they didn't hit anything either.

Mentioned at Wizbang COTT.