Uzi Rubin is the winner of the Israel Defense Prize. In the various positions he has held in the defense establishment, he has been required to contend with the grave threats posed by ballistic missiles armed with heavy warheads and with ranges of hundreds of kilometers. He suggests that the IDF and the defense establishment would do well not to take lightly the few homemade rockets, some of which malfunctioned, that the Palestinians have in recent months tried to launch towards various Jewish communities bordering on northern Samaria and the adjacent Gilboa mountain range.

Video: IDF investigating alleged rocket fire from Jenin / Credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit

"That is precisely how it began in Gaza", recalls the man who headed the Homa (rampart) Administration, also referred to as the IMDO or Israel Missile Defense Organization (which was responsible for the development of the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system), and currently serves as an expert on the missile threat and defense against it at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS). Rubin's deja-vu is firmly embedded in the striking similarity between what is occurring now in Judea and Samaria and what happened in the Gaza Strip back in 2000-2002.

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"There too it began with shoddy homemade production, in garages and workshops. The locals in Gaza removed explosives from mines, mixed together makeshift explosives, which initially blew up on launch, and worked with hollow pipes from whatever materials they could lay their hands on. Gradually, they began to improve their capabilities and performance. The first Hamas rocket was launched at the town of Sderot on April 16, 2001."

In Gaza, recalls Rubin, they first began to manufacture propellants from a mixture of sugar and chemical fertilizers. The production process was fairly simple and was often carried out in domestic kitchens. They used irrigation pipes, traffic signal poles, or other similar tubular objects for the rocket airframe, which were readily available within the Gaza Strip. The rocket warhead was equipped with standard explosive material from the remains of munitions and mines collected in the field, or from improvised explosives. At the workshops in the Gaza Strip, they used lathes to produce stabilizer fins and nozzles from sheets of tin, and these parts were then welded together and painted.

The initial manufacture was improvised using any basic materials locally available. The rockets were named Qassam after Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the radical Muslim preacher who led the local struggle against both the colonial mandate forces in the Levant in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the fierce opposition to the nascent Zionist movement at the time. Israel encountered much difficulty in its efforts to contend with the initial Qassam rockets, as they were small, lightweight (up to 5kg), and at the time were more similar to shoulder-fired man-portable rockets, that were readily transported from place to place.

"Now a similar process might well be taking place in Judea and Samaria," warns Rubin. "Though it might currently appear to be extremely insignificant and not threatening, but that is exactly how it began there too. We need to be extremely alert and to kill it off at birth," he recommends and then refers back to Gaza: "Just look and see to what dimensions the rocket threat in the south has developed."

In contrast to many of the shooting and ramming attacks in recent years, the domestic manufacture of rockets in Judea and Samaria, mainly in the Jenin and northern Samaria areas, the IDF categorizes as organized and guided terrorism rather than lone-wolf attacks. The two factors that are pushing, encouraging, and funding the attempt to develop a credible rocket threat against Israel, not only from the Gaza Strip but also from Judea and Samaria, are Iran and Hamas. For the moment, they are failing in their mission, but they are far from giving up.

The know-how, according to army experts, comes from the Gaza Strip: somebody is taking the trouble to equip the terrorists in northern Samaria with the right technology, which is adequately simple, and if needs be also to refer them to the relevant websites. According to the IDF, there is an abundance of motivation, perhaps at its highest level ever, and this is also true of their ability to conceal these efforts: Judea and Samaria covers an area that is 16 times larger than the Gaza Strip and it encompasses a broad variety of terrain features, plains and mountains, ravines, caves, and densely-populated areas, and the homemade rockets that the Palestinians are now producing in Judea and Samaria are easily transportable and can be readily smuggled and concealed in a variety of hiding places. Only last week was an attempt to smuggle arms thwarted in the northern Jordan Valley area, the specific details of which are still subject to a gag order.

A declaration of intentions

Hamas and Iran, whom Israel blames for being responsible for the rocket capability that the Palestinians are attempting to establish now in Judea and Samaria too, don't even bother to hide their intentions. Senior Hamas figure, Saleh al-Arouri, who is responsible for the organization's military wing activity in Judea and Samaria, has expressed a hope in the past that "the resistance in Judea & Samaria will succeed in obtaining rockets." And when asked if this is actually possible, he responded that "In the Gaza Strip, rockets were manufactured under blockade, so in the West Bank too, we will be able to overcome all the difficulties and will succeed in producing rockets."

Hossein Salami, the commander-in-chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also threatened last summer to turn Judea and Samaria into a base for launching rockets at Israel. "Just as Gaza is armed", explained Salami, "so too we can arm the West Bank... There is no difference between these two areas of land. Nowadays, it is much easier to obtain weapons than in the past and it is impossible to limit the transfer of technology."

If we are to take Salami seriously, then it is apparently no coincidence that the first public exposure after many years of an attempt to manufacture both rockets and launchers was connected to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an organization that operates under Iranian patronage. This information was exposed by the head of Israel's Security Agency, or Shin Bet, Ronen Bar. Bar disclosed that Tareq Az-Aladin, a senior PIJ operative in Judea and Samaria who was targeted by Israel, tried to establish a network for launching improvised rockets from Judea & Samaria into Israel and that at least one out of 20 cells that Aladin controlled was already in the process of manufacturing rockets and launchers, with a view to firing them on targets in Israel. It is now known that one of the targets was the town of Afula.

In the last three months alone, six Palestinian announcements have been made regarding rocket launches from the Jenin area towards nearby Israeli communities, mainly Ram-On and Shaked. In all these instances, an organization calling itself the "El'Ayash Battalions", which is associated with the Hamas military wing, claimed responsibility. In five of these incidents, rocket remains were found, and these all involved primitive improvised rockets, with a limited capability, and despite this Israel is regarding this chain of rocket launching events as a declaration of intentions.

The first documented incident occurred on May 8, when a rocket was fired from the village of Nazlet Zeid in northern Samaria towards the Jewish community of Shaked, and it exploded at the point where it was launched. On Jerusalem Day this year, the Shin Bet located a rocket in Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem and arrested a Palestinian terrorist from the village of Ajjul, who was planning to launch it at the Israelis celebrating the Flag Parade. In late June, the El'Ayash Battalions failed in their attempt to launch another rocket from Jenin towards the moshav of Ram-On, and on July 10, the organization claimed that it had launched two rockets from Jenin at Shaked, the Jewish community located in northern Samaria. In this case, two launchers were found along with the remains of rockets that had actually been fired, but which failed to reach their destination. On the following day, an improvised rocket was fired from the village of Faqu'a near kibbutz Ma'ale Gilboa, but it exploded in the air, failing to cause any damage.

This recent spate of rocket launches comes after 15 years of quiet in Judea and Samaria, in relation to rocket fire. Prior to this, the history of rocket fire in Judea and Samaria was divided into two main periods: The initial years following the Six-Day War and the period of the Second Intifada. Then, unlike today, this involved slightly more professional rockets, usually 107 mm rockets, with a range of 8-9 km. Some of them were of Chinese manufacture and some were smuggled here from Jordan.

Touch and go

The first rockets were fired after the Six-Day War. On August 26, 1969, three of them were launched at Jerusalem. One landed near Ganei Yehuda, the second in the Qatamon neighborhood, and the third in an abandoned field. The rockets were launched from Beit Sahour, and following sweeps conducted in the area, a further 16 launchers were found, ready for operation. In December 1970, two rockets launched from the vicinity of the village of Batir hit a house on Hatayyasim Street in Jerusalem. Four women, resident in the building at the time, were miraculously saved, but then in July 1971, the luck ran out. Four rockets fired from Deir Balut in the Ramallah area hit the Beit Rivkah Hospital for the chronically ill in Petach Tiqva, killing three women and a five-year-old girl.

Additional efforts were documented throughout the period of the Second Intifada and thereafter. Then too, Jenin was the focus of the rocket fire. Just prior to Operation "Defensive Shield" the IDF detained a truck near the city carrying rockets wrapped in canvas. In 2005, the Shin Bet succeeded in taking apart eight Hamas and PIJ cells dealing, among others, with the development of rocket-related capabilities. The target, even back then, was Afula, which is clearly visible from Jenin. One year later, in 2006, launchers of two rockets which were fired towards the settlement of Avnei Hafetz, but missed their target, were found in the Tulkarm area. In 2008, a rocket manufacturing workshop was uncovered in the Nablus casbah.

Now, a decade and a half later, intelligence experts assess that the attempted rocket launches we have seen over the last three months or so — will continue.

Major General (res.) Uzi Dayan, the former Deputy Chief of the General Staff, who also served as the Commander of the IDF Central Command and the Head of the National Security Council, also recommends that we should not sneeze at this renewed threat. "These are attacks that can be easily perpetrated. You don't even need a vehicle for them. This is a prime example of 'fire and forget'. The domestic rockets are made of a hollow tube, a rocket motor, and explosives. You simply position them in a hiding place and go to sleep. The timer then does the rest of the work.

"I am not revealing any state secrets here, but this is how it has worked for a number of years already. The capabilities are currently rather poor, but the potential for expansion is quite significant, and as opposed to Gaza — it may be effective against locations such as Netanya or Herzliya, and from much closer ranges.

"It might not be an existential or strategic threat, but with today's mindset in Israel, and the raw nerves we live on, everything is rapidly intensified. As Israelis don't simply make do with security. They also seek a sense of security, and this is something that is extremely vulnerable to the rocket threat. It might easily become very tangible and dangerous too, once the rockets are aimed at large population centers such as Afula or Hadera, and there is no need for any degree of accuracy here, as whatever happens the rockets will fall 'within' the target area. This is what they are aiming for."

How can we present this, what needs to be done to deal with this potential threat?
"Firstly, it is necessary to continue to prevent the smuggling activity. It is relatively easy to smuggle 107 mm Katyusha rockets, the main ones that have been in use here in recent years. Secondly — within Judea and Samaria the IDF really needs to deploy more mobile checkpoints rather than fixed ones that remain in the same location for weeks on end. I am talking about mobile checkpoints that move from place to place once every few hours. This is most effective and works not only against the rocket threat but also against vehicles used by terrorists for shooting attacks. Obviously, there is also a need for intelligence — we just had Operation Home and Garden, and now we need to make 'Home and Garden visits' and to look for workshops and machine shops dealing with rocket production, not only in Area A but also in Areas B & C."

Q: From where do they obtain the know-how to build the rockets?

"From Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, from Gaza, from Iran, from Jordan, and from social media. Almost everything you need to know is out there."

"A paltry threat"

Dayan warns of the possibility that not only Palestinians from Judea and Samaria but also hostile elements from among Israeli Arabs might try their hand at producing rockets. "Israeli Arab elements", Dayan mentions, "have unfortunately been involved or helped or actually carried out other forms of terrorist attacks, and they might also find the use of rockets to be an attractive threat to attain their goals too."
Major General (res.) Gadi Shamni, a former Commander of the IDF Central Command, is also adamant that the rocket threat from Judea and Samaria is not something to be brushed aside. "This is a serious threat", he says, "not in terms of the damage, but the potential disruption of regular life in the homefront.

I was commander of the IDF Gaza Division in 2003-2004. The Qassam rockets were primitive tubes from road signs with a small amount of explosive, but they made a terrible noise, causing major disruption to routine life, and on occasions they did actually hit, causing physical damage. We used to conduct raids and destroy machine shops, but we lacked the permanent control over the territory, so we were not able to genuinely disrupt the terrorists' efforts to build up their weapons capabilities, which has reached the proportions it has today.

"In Judea and Samaria the conditions are now much better," says Shamni, "as the IDF has a permanent presence on the ground. The most problematic area is in northern Samaria. We may have departed from there, but we haven't really left the place. The Disengagement Plan was implemented, but the IDF remained there and now the residents of Homesh are returning there. In 2008, when I was still in the army, the 'Jenin Pilot', was just beginning. We tried to give the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian Police, and its security forces more freedom to maneuver and freedom of action, based on the understanding that there were no longer any Israeli settlements there (these were uprooted as part of the Disengagement Plan – N.S.), but in 2009, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power, the 'Jenin Pilot' slowly died out. The prime minister did not want to do anything to strengthen the Palestinian Authority (PA). This is his familiar policy of exploiting the rivalry between Hamas and the PA; to further entrench the split between Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the PA in the West Bank, in order to weaken Mahmoud Abbas and to maintain the current standstill, which is ostensibly 'good' for Israel.

"The policymakers then imposed a veto on any efforts to bolster the PA's intelligence capabilities, including their equipment in their armored vehicles and their ability to take part in training sessions in Jordan. Many efforts that had been ongoing until that point, together with both the Americans and the Jordanians, in essence were discontinued. This is how the vacuum was formed into which both Hamas and the PIJ were sucked, and now, as a result, the Jenin area is essentially controlled by the radical forces, who are seeking to gradually build a credible rocket threat."

Shamni asks us all to imagine a situation whereby once a month the Palestinian terrorist organizations succeed in firing just a few rockets into Israeli territory, "They might or might not actually hit. Does anybody really believe that the IDF will be able to just sit idly by? This would require the State of Israel to invest vast amounts of resources to contend with a threat that is essentially almost non-existent, a really paltry threat, but at the same time a threat that simply cannot be ignored as the public would be overwhelmed by anxiety."

He believes that in the long term, it is in Israel's interest to ensure that in the Jenin area, and other locations too, the PA has a durable presence, based on firm economic legs and the ability to govern and impose its control over the area. "I am aware of the serious concern over 'Gaza-ization' and agree that the fact that the IDF is doing its utmost to prevent this is a key factor in dramatically slowing down the development of this scenario, but in my opinion, the current situation will not prevail over the course of time. Eventually, this will blow up in our faces. It would be highly advisable to engage in an effort right now, or in the near future, to build independent capabilities of those Palestinians who do have a clear interest in preventing hostile activity and acts of terrorism, not to mention the threat of rocket attacks on Israel."

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During 2014's Operation Protective Edge against Hamas infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, jewelry designer Inbal Duvdevani noticed a rocket that had fallen near her studio on Kibbutz Nirim and rattled her world.

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"I took a few pieces of shrapnel and kept them as souvenirs," Duvdevani says.

"Because the kibbutz is always in range of rocket fire in every round of fighting, kids would collect the pieces of shrapnel that fell, and so would my son, who collected them and added them to a box that was in the closet," she continues.

After Operation Protective Edge was over, Duvdevani visited the US to take part in an expo intended to promote business from southern Israel. She took the box of shrapnel with her to show visitors with what residents of Israel's south were forced to contend.

"When I displayed the box, someone came up to me and wanted to take a few as a souvenir, and mentioned that if I made jewelry from it, he'd be the first to buy them. When I got back to Israel, it stayed in my mind."

It took Duvdevani two more years until she dared take the box of shrapnel out of the closet and start turning its contents into jewelry.

"After all, it was a tool of war that killed and wounded people I know. But two years on, I decided that I wanted to turn the war into love, and I started crafting jewelry that combine gold and shrapnel, the same rocket that landed next to my studio. After a few tries, I designed jewelry and put them up for sale."

Duvdevani, 41, was born in the western Negev and has lived there all her life. Today, she is a resident of Moshav Sadeh Nitzan in the Eshkol Regional Council. For 25 years she has designed and sold jewelry at her studio on Kibbutz Nirim.

"It's not easy living in the western Negev. Managing an independent business there is hard," she acknowledges.

With assistance and mentorship from the Lauder Employment Center, which works to promote small businesses in Israel's periphery, Duvdevani launched a website through which she sells her creations. Her collection includes pieces made from gold, gold-filled, and silver as well as the items from mortars, which have proved popular and some of which are already sold out.

"Instead of being afraid of the material that's sent to kill us, I chose to make lemons into lemonade and design jewelry from it," she tells Israel Hayom. The designer says that responses have varied widely: "There are people who when they hear that the jewelry is made of a mortar or rocket are put off and don't want it, even if the piece appealed to them originally. On the other hand, there are people who say they have to have it and also ask me to design more for them."

Duvdevani says that during Operation Guardian of the Walls, the loaded issue returned. "People reached out and ordered presents like keychains and necklaces to give them to people who hosted them in other places in Israel. This is material sent to kill us, but I'm proving that things can be different and we can approach it from a stronger place."

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Just three months after the latest war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the border town of Sderot appears to be on the road to recovery.

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The streets are bustling, and the town is filled with well-kept parks and playgrounds. The local real-estate market is booming.

But underneath the veneer of normalcy, the scars of years of rocket fire run deep.

Metal rocket fragments are on display outside the main police station, as a museum of sorts. Next to every park and bus stop is a small concrete bomb shelter – often decked out with colorful murals and street art. An Iron Dome rocket defense battery sits on the eastern edge of town, a few hundred meters (yards) from a new apartment complex.

Some Sderot residents say they jump at the smallest noise. Parents report children still wetting their beds or being too scared to sleep alone.

Noam Biton says she has enjoyed a normal childhood in Sderot. But the 16-year-old high school student says it hasn't always been easy. One of her strongest memories was an air-raid siren that sounded while she was attending a bar mitzvah celebration on what had been a quiet day.

"We lay on the ground, three of us," she said. "The only thing protecting us was a car." The rocket landed nearby, spraying shrapnel in the area.

Outgoing and active in her local scout troop, Biton says she is always careful to sit next to the door when she rides the bus – just in case there is an air-raid siren and she needs to evacuate quickly.

Her mother Dvora, a lifelong resident, says uncertainty is a constant companion. "It saddens you that at any moment someone controls your life," she said. "We can't escape."

Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and numerous skirmishes since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning a Palestinian Authority election.

No place in Israel has been hit harder by Palestinian rocket fire than Sderot, located some 1.5 kilometers (1 mile) from the Gaza border. Yet two decades after the first rudimentary rockets landed in town, experts are still struggling to figure out their long-term effects on a generation of parents and children who have come of age in this traumatic environment.

"People who are living in the south of Israel live with the understanding that it's just a question of time until the next time," said Talia Levanon, director of the Israel Trauma Coalition.

"You are literally trying to heal from the last time while preparing for the next time, which makes our job very, very tough," she said.

Levanon's nonprofit operates a series of "resilience centers" throughout southern Israel that provide a variety of services, including counseling and workshops for families and communities.

In an indication of how widely people have been affected, she said that during a brief round of violence in 2019, nearly two-thirds of the area's 60,000 residents received services from a resilience center.

May's 11-day Operation Guardian of the Walls was the latest reminder of Sderot's precarious position. Nearly 300 rockets were fired at Sderot, according to the municipality. Despite the protection of the Iron Dome, 10 rockets scored direct hits on buildings – including a strike that killed a five-year-old boy.

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Sderot residents often use the word "resilience" when describing the community. And in many ways, Sderot appears to be thriving.

Once known as a dusty backwater in the Negev desert, it has evolved into a bustling town of some 27,000 people, with new apartment complexes and expensive villas seeming to pop up in any piece of open space. It has a heavily fortified train station linking it to major cities. There are shopping centers, bars and restaurants popular with students from a college in town.

Researchers say that people who grow up here tend to remain in the area as adults, out of pride and a strong connection to its tight-knit community.

Yaron Sasson, spokesman for the local government, said veteran residents and newcomers are drawn by special tax breaks, generous services made possible by government support and overseas donors as well as the small-town feel. At a time when much of the country is now within rocket range, he said Sderot is even seen as relatively safe, thanks to its many bomb shelters and reinforced schools and kindergartens.

Yet according to the trauma coalition, residents suffer from a wide range of symptoms. Teens suffer from higher rates of diabetes, aggression and hypertension than their counterparts in other communities.

Anxiety, depression, sleeping difficulties and general exhaustion are common symptoms among adults, and researchers only now are beginning to study the effects of growing up in Sderot on young parents' child-rearing skills. Another question is how Sderot's youths – who  are frequently spooked by loud noises – can perform in the military.

Dvora Biton said that whenever she goes out in the car, she plans a route that will take her past any of the dozens of bomb shelters scattered throughout town. The car window is always open, the volume on the radio is kept low and the pantry is filled with canned goods. Any loud sound, even a popping balloon, makes her jump.

"It's something that you think about 24 hours a day," she said. "You can't escape it, even when you are sleeping."

Fifteen years ago, before there was the Iron Dome, a rocket landed outside the family's home, leaving a metal fragment embedded in her front door. Biton left the fragment in the door for years, only recently finding the strength to remove it during a home renovation.

"I wanted to leave it there as a reminder that we live in an unhealthy reality," she said. "But on the other hand, there is a feeling you want to be released from these things."

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Hours after rockets were fired on northern Israel from Lebanon on Tuesday morning, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel were in Maalot, some 20 km. (12 miles) from Nahariya as planned to attend an event marking the installation of optic fiber in the city.

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Speaking at the event, Bennett said, "Tonight, rockets were fired at Israel from Lebanon. The IDF carried out retaliatory attacks. I am saying clearly: we will not allow attacks on Israel's sovereignty or security. Anyone who tries to attack us will pay a painful price. We are always operating, day and night, on all fronts, and will continue to do so."

Bennett said, "Lebanon is on the verge of collapse, like any state in which Iran gains a foothold. Its citizens are being held as hostages by [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei and [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, for the sake of Iranian interests. That's unfortunate, but we will not allow the situation in Lebanon to spill over into Israel. As I've said, anyone who tries to hurt us will pay a painful price."

Shortly after midnight, Syrian news agency SANA reported that Israeli aircraft had carried out strikes near Aleppo, Syria's second-largest city. At approximately 4 a.m. Tuesday, Color Red sirens went off in the western Galilee, and shortly thereafter the IDF confirmed that two rockets had been launched at Israel from Lebanon.

"1 of the rockets was intercepted by the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System & the 2nd rocket fell in an open area inside Israel. We remain prepared to defend Israel on all fronts," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said on Twitter.

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Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have developed the first methodology to assess symptoms associated with continuous exposure to traumatic stress from rocket attacks and other security threats not currently measured by diagnostic criteria.

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Published in the journal PLOS ONE, the study identified three distinct factors: exhaustion/detachment, rage/betrayal and fear/helplessness.

"Exposure to ongoing life risk exists wherever people experience continuous terror, rampant crime and civil war," says lead researcher Dr. Aviva Goral, a graduate of the BGU School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, and a researcher at the PREPARED Center for Emergency Response Research (PREPARED).

"Current scales assess the more commonly known effects of exposure to traumatic stress, mainly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This limits patient assessment and may lead to misdiagnoses and ineffective treatment," says Goral.

"The research was conducted to address this gap by developing a validated, comprehensive assessment tool, the Continuous Traumatic Stress Response (CTSR) Scale."

In the study, researchers sampled 313 adults who were and were not exposed to ongoing security threats between December 2016 and February 2017. Respondents lived in southern Israel communities bordering the Gaza Strip, where frequent rocket fire requires them to find shelter in 30 seconds or less. Researchers compared the concurrent validity of CTSR relative to the Post-traumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS).

The findings indicated that the CTSR measures a construct related to, but distinct from PTSD; responses to ongoing exposure to threat are wider and more intensive than those associated with single traumatic exposure and may include cognitive, behavioral and emotional effects that are not part of traditional PTSD criteria.

Among CTSR criteria, a reduced sense of safety, distrust and mental exhaustion emerged with ongoing exposure to stressors. Other symptoms include social withdrawal, feelings of emptiness, hopelessness, estrangement and feelings of constantly being threatened.

"These findings imply that it is not exposure to ongoing threats per se, but rather the level of perceived threat (i.e., likelihood of injury or harm) that accounts for the difference in the prevalence and severity of CTSR stress symptoms," says Goral.

"Compared with distant communities, border-adjacent communities are much more vulnerable to rockets and tunnel infiltration, creating an atmosphere of tension and fear."

Professor Limor Aharonson-Daniel, head of PREPARED and Goral's Ph.D. supervisor, notes that "further studies are being conducted with larger samples and in broader populations around the Gaza Envelope. Future research will include international implementation in various languages and with other populations exposed to ongoing conflict or persistent civil war (e.g., Syria). This cross-cultural research will help identify the similarities and differences between conflict zones and cultures and facilitate the generalization of the CTSR scale."

"This study, and the diagnostic tool it yields, could benefit Israel and people around the world who suffer from continuous trauma and related symptoms," says Doug Seserman, chief executive officer of Americans for Ben-Gurion University.

"We look forward to seeing new research and development from BGU that continues to build off of this work," Seserman adds.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org

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The political echelon expects the international community to begin pressuring Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire, the government said Sunday. 

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Egypt attempted to broker a ceasefire on Friday, but failed. An official involved in the talks told Israel Hayom that both sides rejected all proposals for a truce, especially Israel. According to the official, the IDF is intent on completing its operations against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and only then would be open to a ceasefire. 

As of Sunday afternoon, no country has pressured Israel to stop its operation in Gaza. In fact, many expressed full support for the country's right to defend itself. 

On Tuesday, European Union foreign ministers will hold urgent video talks on the escalating fighting between Israel and Hamas, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced on Twitter.

"In view of the ongoing escalation between Israel and Palestine and the unacceptable number of civilian casualties, I am convening an extraordinary VTC of the EU Foreign Ministers on Tuesday," Borrell said.

"We will coordinate and discuss how the EU can best contribute to end the current violence."

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Sunday called on the UN Security Council to seek an early de-escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas, and blamed the U. for the council's lack of action so far.

"Regrettably, the council has so far failed to reach an agreement, with the United States standing on the opposite side of international justice," the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as saying in a phone conversation Saturday with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

He expressed support for a two-state solution, and said China, which holds the Security Council presidency this month, expects all parties to speak with a unified voice when the council discusses the conflict later Sunday.

Wang said the Security Council should reconfirm a two-state solution and urge Palestinians and Israelis to resume talks on that basis as soon as possible.

On Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with US President Joe Biden by phone.

"The President reaffirmed his strong support for Israel's right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza. He condemned these indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel," the White House published in a statement afterward. 

Biden updated Netanyahu on high-level US engagement with regional partners on the issue. The US President also raised concerns about the safety of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection, the statement said.

Also, Biden condemned intercommunal violence across Israel and commended the government's efforts to hold rioters accountable and establish order. The two agreed to be in touch in the days ahead.  

i24NEWS contributed to this report

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As Hamas continued its rocket strikes against Israel's civilian population on Saturday, the IDF maintained heavy pressure on Hamas targets in Gaza. One of the strategic targets destroyed in strikes was a high-rise building that housed the Gaza offices of The Associated Press and other international media outlets.

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The AP has operated from the building for 15 years, including through three previous wars between Israel and Hamas. During those conflicts as well as the current one, the news agency's cameras from its top floor office and roof terrace offered 24-hour live shots as terrorists' rockets arched toward Israel and Israeli airstrikes hammered the city and its surroundings.

"We have had no indication Hamas was in the building or active in the building," AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement. "This is something we actively check to the best of our ability. We would never knowingly put our journalists at risk."

In the afternoon, the IDF called the building's owner and warned a strike would come within an hour. AP staffers and other occupants evacuated safely.

Soon after, three missiles hit the building and destroyed it, bringing it crashing down in a giant cloud of dust.

"The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today," Pruitt said. "We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP's bureau and other news organizations in Gaza."

Mostefa Souag, acting director-general of Al-Jazeera Media Network, called the strike a "war crime" aiming to "silence the media and to hide the untold carnage and suffering of the people of Gaza."

US press leaders called for Israel to stop attacking buildings that house journalists in Gaza after an Israeli missile destroyed the al-Jalaa building on Saturday.

National Press Club President Lisa Nicole Matthews and National Press Club Journalism Institute President Angela Greiling Keane issued the following statement:

"The Israeli airstrike on an office tower in Gaza Saturday is part of a pattern this week of Israeli forces destroying buildings in Gaza that house media organizations. After Israeli forces provided warning of the attacks, journalists and other civilians were able to escape death. But, as AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt put it, AP journalists and freelancers saw their equipment destroyed and 'narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life.'"

"We call upon Israeli authorities to halt strikes on facilities known to house press. Reliable media organizations are the best sources of accurate information about events in Gaza, and they must not be prevented from doing their vital job," Matthews and Keane said.

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Israeli aircraft carried out a series of strikes against Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip overnight between Thursday and Friday in response to rockets fired at Israel on Independence Day.

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Targets included a weapons manufacturing facility, a tunnel used to smuggle weapons, and a Hamas military outpost.

Hamas operatives fired a rocket at Israel on Thursday, which landed in an open area. No damage or injuries were reported.

In the few weeks since the March 23 Knesset election, there have been few incidents from Gaza. However, on Election Day itself, Hamas fired a number of rocket toward Beersheba. The IDF responded with airstrikes against Hamas targets early the next morning, March 24.

Hamas timed the Election Day rocket fire to coincide with the beginning of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's campaign work.

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A day ahead of the one-year anniversary of Israel's targeted killing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Baha Abu Ata, Israel is preparing to counter a possible escalation in violence from the Gaza Strip. The IDF on Wednesday deployed additional Iron Dome batteries to southern Israel, and airline approach vectors have been altered.

Landing aircraft will approach Israel by a more northerly route, over the Sharon region, rather than over Tel Aviv. Departing flights will also take off in a direction farther to the north than planes usually do.

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The IDF's Gaza Division was on high alert, and ready to respond to attacks on Israel by rocket fire or explosives-laden balloons.

Last week, Israel Hayom reported that the one-year anniversary of Abu Ata's death has been mentioned in the Gaza Strip for some time as a date for violence. Concerns about possible attacks from Gaza are also high in light of the COVID and economic crises that have pushed unemployment among Gaza residents to over 60%.

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Unlike the first wave of COVID, which resulted in only a few dozen confirmed cases in Gaza, the second wave has brought thousands of cases. There are several dozen patients currently listed in serious condition in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority is not sending any money to Gaza, and Hamas has limited entry and exit to and from the area to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Moreover, Hamas is disappointed at the lack of progress on a long-term truce with Israel. Israel in conditioning progress in talks on a solution to its captive fallen soldiers and civilians, while the powers that be in Gaza are refusing to link the issues.

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Musab al-Berim, a spokesman for the PIJ, said the ceasefire went into effect at 11:30 p.m. Monday, several hours after an earlier truce quickly unraveled. He said Egypt and UN mediators had negotiated the new deal, and nearly an hour later things appeared quiet on both sides.

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During two days of fighting, Israeli aircraft pounded dozens of targets in the Gaza Strip while the PIJ bombarded southern Israel with heavy rocket fire. Israel also expanded its retaliation to Syria, where some of the Iranian-backed group's leaders are based, killing two more Islamic Jihad members in an overnight airstrike.

On Monday evening, a source with ties to Gaza-based terrorist organizations informed the news site Al-Watania, which is identified with Hamas, that the ceasefire would take effect starting at 11:30 p.m. Monday evening.

Earlier Monday, the Al-Aqsa channel, also identified with Hamas, reported that the various "resistance" groups in the Gaza Strip had agreed to Egyptian mediators' plea for a cease-fire starting at 10 p.m. However, the hour following the report saw consistent rocket fire on Israel that ended just before 11 p.m.

The development comes after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced Monday that its response to IDF strikes in Khan Younis and Damascus had concluded. In a written press release, the PIJ stated that it "promises to continue to respond to acts of occupation against our people."

The PIJ had declared a unilateral ceasefire. But Israel continued to strike targets in Gaza. Islamic Jihad accused Israel of continued "aggression" and resumed its rocket fire, drawing further Israeli airstrikes and an Israeli closure of Gaza's key border crossings and fishing zone.

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