Rockets Fired From Egypt Miss Israel, Hit Jordan
Courtesy of Tyler Durden
Things in the middle east are back to normal (which means the usual deadly massacre), although with a twist. An earlier rocket attack on the Israel port city of Eliat missed its target completely, and instead slammed into Aqaba, in neighboring Jordan, located 6 miles away just over the border. Instead of firing the rockets from Israel and prompting immediate airborne retaliation, the launch point for today’s attack was Egypt, which prevent Israel (or should that be Jordan) from retaliating. Sky News reports that the reason for the shelling is connected to a recent agreement that will see the Palestinian authorities talk face-to-face with the Israelis, and radical elements, who do not want that to happen, are escalating the violence as a means to stop it. It is unclear if Jordan will also escalate now that its own territory has been impacted in the ongoing conflict, and it is also to be seen how Egypt will react should it become perceived as a peripheral zone of cross-border attacks.
From Sky News:
A series of rockets fired at the Israeli port of Eliat have hit a Jordanian Red Sea resort instead, injuring at least four people.
Israeli soldiers were searching for at least two devices which did land on their side of the border, but did not hurt anybody.
At around the same time four people were wounded – one of them seriously – when a rocket slammed into Aqaba, about 10km away in Jordan.
The two resorts are located side-by-side on the Red Sea coast, both popular tourist destinations.
One rocket exploded on a main street in front of the city’s Intercontinental Hotel, the country’s information minister Ali Ayed said.
Officials believe the rockets were fired from militants inside Egypt and they may have overshot their target.
Eilat district police commander Moshe Cohen told Israeli radio his forces were still trying to confirm that the five explosions were caused by shelling.
“It’s a little early to say, but it is reasonable to assume that it came from the southern area,” he said, referring to Egypt, whose Sinai desert has seen occasional violence attributed to Islamist militants.
“There have been five rocket and mortar attacks coming out of Gaza and into Israel, and there have been two air strikes (in return) by the Israelis.
“When rockets were fired out of here (Gaza) on Thursday and Friday, the response came overnight, back came an air strike immediately.
“If they’re fired out of Egypt – and this could be possible why it’s been moved down to there – the Israeli air force cannot cross the border and bomb in Egypt.
“So I don’t think there will be a retaliation down there. They may retaliate here, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
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