"Operation Oil Stain"

The world becomes very forgetful whenever Israel decides to act in self-defense. At best, people might think that there were some low-level rocket attacks against Israel, but no big deal and nothing more than Israel has endured for years, hardly worth getting upset about.

Here is an article from Ma'an News, in English, from last Thursday:

The military wing affiliated to Hamas, Al-Qassam Brigades released a statement on Thursday morning briefing the group's military activities over the first twenty four hours of an operation they called “Oil Stain” which started Wednesday morning.

According to the statement, a total of 87 shells have been fired at Israeli targets bordering the Gaza Strip including 54 mortar shells, 31 homemade projectiles which Hamas calls “Qassam”, and two Soviet-made Grad missiles.

Al-Qassam Brigades threatened to enlarge the “Oil Stain” to get more thousands of Israelis “under fire”. The group asserted that its fighters are “far greater than surrendering to Israeli threats and that they became much more prepared to counter Israeli aggression and to defend themselves than in the past.”

(The rocket count does not include those shot by other terror groups, only Hamas.)

No media outside this article even mentions "Operation Oil Stain," although quite a few have mentioned Israel's response, "Operation Cast Lead."

Just as with the "calm," where the world still called it a "cease fire" even as rockets were shot daily from Gaza into Israel, so do many consider this operation to have been started by Israel. As we have seen, however, Hamas declared war on Israeli civilians last Wednesday.