The US firmly backed Israel and condemned Palestinian terror groups Saturday after 400 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.
“The United States strongly condemns the ongoing barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza upon innocent civilians and their communities across Israel. We call on those responsible for the violence to cease this aggression immediately,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.
“We stand with Israel and fully support its right to self defense against these abhorrent attacks,” she added.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}

The man killed by a Gazan rocket on Motzei Shabbos has been identified as Moshe Agadi, 58, a father of four from Ashkelon.
Magen David Adom paramedics provided medical treatment to the man and evacuated him to the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon with shrapnel wounds in his chest and stomach. The hospital announced his death approximately one hour later.
Ashkelon Mayor Tomer Glam arrived at the scene of the attack and said, “This is a difficult time for the city of Ashkelon. We are all mourning, hurt and broken by the tragedy of one of the oldest and most well-known families in Ashkelon.”

Palestinian Islamic Jihad issued a video on Shabbos threatening with attacks on a number of Israeli targets, including Ben-Gurion International Airport.
The video shows Islamic Jihad militants loading rockets into a launcher, followed by a list of targets in Israel such as the Dimona nuclear reactor in the Negev desert, Ashdod port and refineries in Haifa.
Israel’s security cabinet will meet on Sunday to discuss the escalating situation in Gaza.
Read more at i24NEWS.
{Matzav.com}

The United Nations envoy for Middle East peace said Saturday evening that the UN and Egypt are working together to end the fighting between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip.
“The United Nations is working with Egypt and all sides to calm the situation. I call on all parties to immediately de-escalate and return to the understandings of the past few months. Those who seek to destroy them will bear responsibility for a conflict that will have grave consequences for all,” Nikolay Mladenov said in a statement.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the army “to deal a hard blow” to terror groups in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory, according to a defense official quoted by Hebrew-language media.
The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday launched a series of strikes on the Gaza Strip from both land and air, as around 200 rockets were fired toward Israel from the Palestinian enclave. The army said dozens of the projectiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
A senior Israeli official told Channel 13 news that there is growing understanding there will not be an immediate return to calm on the southern border, with an expectation of “at least two to three days of fighting.”

Due to the continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and the resulting color red sirens that have been bombarding Israelis all over Israel’s south, dozens of Israelis have suffered emotional stress reactions including shock.
Since Shabbos ended, the United Hatzalah Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit volunteers as well as emergency medical volunteers have treated 40 people who have suffered light injuries or were victims of shock and emotional or psychological stress in numerous cities in Israel’s south.

Over three hundred rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel on Shabbos, and Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepted dozens of them.
Air raid sirens sounded in Gaza-area towns, as well as in Beit Shemesh and other Jerusalem-area towns. Rockets also landed in the courtyards of a home and school in Kiryat Gat.
A 60 year old man was declared dead after being critically wounded at approxamitely 2:30 following a rocket attack which hit a building in the Ashkelon area.
MDA paramedics provided medical treatment to the man and evacuated him to the Ashkelon Barzilai Hospital with shrapnel wounds in his chest and stomach. The hospital announced his death approxamitely one hour after the hit.

Democrats attack Attorney General Barr over Mueller report results, fighting to hold on to Russia collusion narrative.
WATCH:

Cindy Warmbier, the mother of Otto Warmbier, the American student who was detained in North Korea before his death, called the country a “cancer” on Friday.
“North Korea, to me, is a cancer on the Earth,” Warmbier said while speaking at a Hudson Institute event.
“If we ignore this cancer, it’s not going to go away, it’s going to kill all of us,” she added.
“The only difference between Hitler and [North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un] is that he’s doing it to all of his people,” she said.
 
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

Vice President Pence hammered former Vice President Joe Biden and other leading 2020 Democratic presidential contenders as “advocating a socialist agenda.”
“I think the choice that we face in the country today is a choice between freedom and socialism, increasingly. President Trump has been advocating an agenda that’s built on the principles of freedom in the marketplaces, lower taxes, less regulation, more access to energy, better, fair trade deals,” Pence told CNBC on Friday.