feels like having the city's emergency
services are here right now and it's a
little bit chaotic all the windows all
the doors just blow it what do you want
your country to do now destroyed back in
mid-november Israel launched an assault
on Gaza with the assassination of the
military commander of Hamas the Islamist
organization which controls the small
palestinian strip of land bordering
Egypt and Israel Othman jobbery was
killed without warning in a precision
rocket strike as he drove through Gaza
City there wasn't much left of the car
or him and Hamas immediately retaliated
with a barrage of rocket fire that
killed three Israeli civilians on the
same day or at least that's what a
Palestinian would tell you in Israel the
story is that the assassination was a
response to rocket fire from the Gaza
Strip which had been taking place for
months and was escalating wildly in the
build-up to this latest war but whoever
you believe both sides pretty much agree
that in eight days of conflict over a
hundred and fifty Palestinians died with
over half of them civilians and that
only five Israelis were killed
[Music]
we're on our way heading south towards
Gaza and the question people have been
asking themselves is why this
confrontation with the Palestinians now
now Israel says it's got the right to
defend itself against rocket attacks and
I think nobody disputes that but at the
same time Israel also is able to decide
when it chooses to escalate the
situation and some people have been
saying that perhaps it's because there's
a national election coming so we're
coming into Ashdod and apparently five
or six rockets have already landed on
the city today from Gaza we're gonna go
check it out
the theory goes that Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu needed a little war
to rally hardliners around himself ahead
of the election ha Ahmed jobari the
Hamas military chief was getting ready
to agree to a long-term ceasefire which
would get in the way of just such a warm
[Music]
hi this is the first damage we've seen
from rockets being fired from Gaza this
one hit here in Ashdod and basically all
it did was the damage we saw at the top
of the building and a few broken windows
here I mean to be honest if these are
the Rockets that Iran is giving to Hamas
they're kind of wimpy so far I wasn't
very impressed
but then again over the last few days
Hamas had been able to achieve something
that hadn't been done by anyone since
saddam hussein trigger air-raid sirens
and cities far away from gaza like
Ashdod and even tel aviv the war was at
their doorstep and all thanks to new
missiles with longer ranges smuggled
into Gaza courtesy of Iran we headed
further south until we hit the last gas
station before the Gaza border it was
getting dark but you could see that the
area was crawling with Israeli soldiers
getting ready for a potential ground
invasion of the strip it's my job excuse
me can you help out no what about you
they're apparently thousands of soldiers
stationed just around this area this is
a rest stop where a lot of them come to
eat for this insane June clown posse has
just pulled up and apparently there's a
war a kilometer away from here but it's
really hard to tell with the music
[Applause]
for peace in all the world okay so did
you guys come here to encourage the
soldiers or Hassan Hayle the first to
fight their enemies who sent their
missiles and that's some kind of a
prayer for peace I I don't think
[Music]
okay I use blue chips ooh okay I was an
air-raid siren coming over the radio
apparently there's a few towns in this
area actually which are being hit by
rockets from Gaza we're gonna go and try
to see if we can find them now Starrett
is the town in southern Israel that's
faced the brunt of the rocket fire from
Gaza since militants started launching
them back in 2001 according to the
Israeli military 7361 Rockets have been
fired at Israel over the years and so
many of them come down here that the
local authorities have had to get
creative about protecting residents so
this is a bus stop ins de wrote on the
town that's nearest to Gaza ins based
most of the missiles coming here over
the years the bus stops here are kind of
fortified they double as bomb shelters
but judging by the smell they double as
toilets - it's not exactly the place the
kind of place that I'd want to hide from
a bomb for any lengthy period of time
[Music]
7361 rockets raining down on israel is a
pretty impressive statistic but not as
impressive as this one since the first
kasam missile was launched over a decade
ago just 59 Israelis have been killed
over 4700 Palestinians have been killed
in the same period now I know which side
of that equation I'd rather be on we
climbed a hill in starett overlooking
Gaza and met an Israeli American tour
guide who told me he was thinking of
bringing tourists down to the Gaza
border so what do you think a person who
would come on a tour with you would be
able to see having scouted it out I'd
like to be able to bring them to stay
away from here we can just see the
border fence so just in the last week
results and I'm not gonna use yeah but I
don't think most of the people in the
world understand what these people be
living that has been a constant barrage
do you think it's a little bit of an
uphill struggle trying to convince them
that Israel is the victim in this
situation in the course of the last five
days you know 75 Gazans Palestinians
have died and only three Israelis have
died yeah I agree with you I think it is
an uphill struggle what we do Israel has
a better system for defending citizens
it's got a better system for destroying
the Gaza Strip we have without a doubt
Israel has probably one of the most
without accountant it's difficult I
guess for outsiders to understand why
now why this retribution at this point
in time what do you think it just got to
the boiling point there was a week ago
the Hamas they attacked an army patrol
and the number of soldiers were wounded
and it was just one of these things that
was it was slowly coming to a boil and
Israel had no choice but five days ago
to reactor to say enough is enough we've
got to stop right finally last week as
you said we can't do it okay Code Red
coming right now should we follow them I
think we should follow them they know
better than us all right here you can
see the fellow over there few hundred
yards from where we're standing there's
another one just over on top of the
other hill so basically people come out
here to get a little bit of that action
you gotta get your kicks somehow we're
at the top of this hill and it's kind of
a festive mood here actually because
most of the people just come to have a
look the Iron Dome missile defense
system has really changed the balance we
just saw the Iron Dome intercept a
rocket sent from Gaza so people come out
here just to watch it like it was a show
I mean I don't think anybody feels that
they're in any massive amount of danger
but the situation is completely
different on the other side of the
border obviously because there's almost
been 80 people killed already and only
three people in the last five days of
conflict have died in Israel
[Music]
the Israeli military's organized a
little briefing to show off their new
missile defense system we've heard a
couple of explosions just now and we're
only about a couple of kilometers away
so holy
Jesus Christ