Operation "Autumn Storm"

With the opening of the Annapolis Conference, Palestinian organizations in the Gaza Strip are sending a clear message to those gathering in Maryland.

Tuesday morning the Popular Resistance Committees announced the beginning of operation "Autumn Storm" in which the organization plans to launch rocket attacks at Sderot and the western Negev during the conference.

Meanwhile, fighting in the field has not ceased for a moment: in the last 24 hours at least eight Palestinians have died in a string of clashes with the IDF, including attempts to launch rockets and plant bombs near the border.

"The Annapolis Conference has been called the Autumn Conference, and leaves fall in the autumn; therefore, our missiles will also fall on Israel," said a PRC spokesman, explaining the name. "We are sure that the masks will fall of the faces of the conference participants, and all will see their conspiracy against the interests of the Palestinian people." 

The spokesman, who calls himself Abu Abir, said that the missiles — which already began falling Tuesday morning — "will carry a message to all the world that the conference does not represent the Palestinian people and will only cause damage and increase the Palestinian's burden. We are also sending the message that whoever participates in the conference from the Palestinian side barely even represents himself.

...This is our way of saying that the Palestinians will never recognize Israel, neither as a Jewish state nor as anything else."

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Palestinian Rocket Fire Continues
Palestinians in Gaza fired a Kassam rocket that landed in Israel's western Negev on Tuesday. (Jerusalem Post)
    See also Since June, Every Three Hours Palestinians Fire Rocket into Israel (IDF Spokesperson's Office/IMRA)