The following media release concerns rocket attacks aimed at Israeli civilians from the Hamas-con­trolled Gaza Strip overnight. To download this media release in PDF format, click here.

Rocket attacks from Gaza

Anton Block, President
30 March, 2018

The Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry, the national rep­res­ent­at­ive body of the Aus­trali­an Jewish community, is shocked and appalled by the firing of over 50 mortar rounds from the Hamas-con­trolled Gaza Strip targeted at Israeli civilian pop­u­la­tion centres in the country’s south. Israelis are reporting that the barrage is con­tinu­ing at present with no sign of abating.
With only 15 seconds’ warning, hundreds of thousands of Israeli civilians are now des­per­ately scram­bling to bomb shelters and waiting in terror for news from their loved ones. Among the targets hit by the rocket fire was a kinder­garten in the Eshkol regional community. A tunnel into Israel con­struc­ted by Palestini­an terrorist groups near the Kerem Shalom human­it­ari­an aid crossing was also uncovered by the Israel Defence Forces.
These are delib­er­ate attacks aimed at civilians, and con­sti­tute a war crime. We welcome the state­ments of con­dem­na­tion of this latest Palestini­an escal­a­tion by the gov­ern­ments of Ireland, Italy, and the United States, among others.
We express our solid­ar­ity with the people of Israel in this difficult time and call on Aus­trali­an politi­cians to condemn without equi­voc­a­tion or delay these gross viol­a­tions by the Palestini­ans of the laws and norms of armed conflict and inter­na­tion­al human­it­ari­an law.
We also call upon all sections of the media to report accur­ately on the targeting of civilians in Israel by Palestini­an terrorist organ­isa­tions in these latest rocket attacks, and not merely on Israel’s response to them.
Contact:
Peter Wertheim AM | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904
e: [email protected] | www.ecaj.org.au
Alex Ryvchin | Co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8505 | m: 0478 297 245
e: [email protected] | www.ecaj.org.au