About an hour ago We were given a dramatic example of how our Israeli news channel can respond to a sudden crisis. The regular evening news was beginning to wind down when we suddenly saw missile attack warnings appear on the screen. The Home Front Command of the Israeli Army has had system for broadcasting such alerts in real time for quite a while. This time, as planned, the alerts showed up at the same time as the air raid sirens began to sound in the target area. Earlier in the year we had seen these alerts often as Hamas in Gaza fired on Israeli villages nearby. This time it was slightly different. The target areas were in and around Tel-Aviv.
The TV news team mobilized immediately. We had seen a report from Gaza earlier about Palestinian civil unrest and rioting that was directed AGAINST Hamas this afternoon. Those demonstrations were suppressed by the Gazan police and military. Not just suppressed, but suppressed violently. Gazans who dared to complain were severely beaten. Some people videoed the activities with their cell phones and managed to get them out before the Hamas authorities turned off the network.
But that small news item did nothing to prepare anyone for the firing of 2 rockets at Tel Aviv. Hamas has not fired on targets that far away for the past 4 years. The actual results weren’t much to write home about. One of the rockets was intercepted by an Iron Dome defense system and the other appears to have fallen harmlessly in an open field. Israelis are usually prepared for this kind of sudden attack. Within a minute the people in Tel Aviv took to shelters. TV cameras on the scene showed us, in absolute real time, pictures of deserted cafes and empty streets. As I mentioned before, the TV reporters were off and running in minutes. We had reports from Israel Police headquarters, the Magen David Adom emergency medical service, and from military headquarters. TV reporters were on the scene in all those locations on very short notice. Within half n hour we got to see pictures of the Iron Dome rockets intercepting a missile. The TV back room acquired the video, edited it, got censorship approval, and had it on the air that fast.
Of course there was the usual speculation about who was responsible. That prompted the Jihad Islami group in Gaza to immediately release a statement denying any involvement. Hamas quickly ordered all their people to vacate their public buildings in expectation of some kind of israeli response. That expectation was strengthened by a report that the IDF had asked the Egyptian delegation in Gaza that was trying to negotiate a long term cease fir between Israel and Hamas to immediately return to Egypt.
I have no idea what will happen by morning. But I was very impressed by how quickly the TV team shifted gears and rapidly, and accurately, reported all the above events including video clips and the results of listening to broadcasts of various types from inside Gaza.
Wetherhorn 