Since last evening, hundreds of rockets have been launched from Gaza to Israel, targeting mostly southern towns.

Earlier today, close to 150 rockets were fired in minutes, hitting private homes in the city of Ashkelon, killing two civilians and injuring eight others. In return, the Israeli Army aims at military targets and missile launchers.
 
Sitting in my home office in the city of Modi’in, 36 miles from Gaza, it's hard not to hear the constant bombing, but it's much harder to read news feeds from across the world and stay calm. 
 
We are familiar with the biased reports that reflect a one-sided, superficial understanding of the situation and the chain of events that led us to this point. These hypocritical reports are tainted with prejudice and reflect a hostile attitude toward Israel.
 
This current cycle of violence didn’t start yesterday. It began weeks ago with sporadic rockets fired from Gaza, terror attacks, ongoing provocations, and the resumed launch of incendiary balloons from Gaza, which caused children in the south to view balloons as weapons, not an innocent toy. In the face of these inflammatory actions, the Israeli government demonstrated restraint, looking to calm the tension and stop the violence from snowballing out of control. The government was criticized for its restraint and for not responding sooner. So, Israel's weeks’-long attempts to quell hostilities weren’t recognized, and the story told is that we, once again, are the aggressors.
 
As in similar past incidents, the heads of terrorist organizations, once again, are hiding together with their arsenal of weapons in the basements of hospitals in Gaza, knowing they are safe there because Israel will never intercept civilian targets—and certainly not hospitals. Once again, Israel’s morality is cynically exploited against the country, but not shared around the world.
 
Unfortunately, the rounds of violence are a pre-determined chronicle. As in every round, this time, too, there will be attempts to reconcile, we will eventually reach a ceasefire agreement, and, once again, children will be out and about playing with balloons. Just not yet.