Gaza terrorists attacked the Western Negev with a mortar shell that landed smack in the middle of a small community Wednesday night but miraculously exploded in an open area without causing damage or injuries.

The IDF is investigating why the Color Red early warning system did not sound and give residents the usual advance notice of 20 seconds to scurry to bomb shelters.

Earlier in the day, terrorists launched a mortar shell but it landed inside the Gaza area.

The name of the community targeted in the explosion Wednesday night was not reported for reasons of security except that it was in the Sha’ar HaNegev region, less than a mile from northern Gaza and home to several farming moshavim and kibbutzim.

The IDF is certain to retaliate within hours, but as usual, the targets will be a rocket or mortar shell launching site or perhaps a weapons factory and a smuggling tunnel.

The IDF knows the locations of terrorists but responds only in the case of rocket strike or mortar shelling or a “ticking bomb” plot to attack.

A strong counter-terrorist maneuver, such as invading Gaza or bombing Hamas offices would meet with universal condemnation for a “disproportionate” attack.

And Israel does not want to be disproportionate because it might cause the world to be angry with the Jews. It might mean Israel won’t have the backing of the United Nations and the Obama administration, especially  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

Oh, did someone say Israel does not have that support anyway? No, it can’t be. Kerry says he is pro-Israel, so it must be.

But what happens when, God forbid, the IDF runs out of miracles, and a mortar shell or “primitive” Kassam rocket hits a kindergarten? That happened a couple of years ago, but another miracle happened – the pre-school facility was closed for the day.

But when someone is killed or seriously wounded, and it will happen, then the IDF can be “proportionate” and go after one or two terrorists.

The principle of “proportionate” only applies to Israel. The day is not near when any other country will count how many citizens are killed or wounded by an enemy missile strike before going to war against the attacker.

But the United States is big on proportionate retaliation. Wasn’t it the United States that dropped a couple of Atomic Bombs on Japan? And wasn’t it the atomic bombs that put an end to the war?

Israel does not need to nuke Gaza,. The time will come when Gaza will meet its Maker,

The best scenario is one whereby Gaza falls apart with a mini-civil war breaking out between terrorists who will kill each other off until the only ones remaining alive are the poor Arabs who enjoyed a much better life when the Jews were employing them as construction workers in Tel Aviv and farm workers in Gush Katif.

One scenario is another major counter terrorist attack, but that won’t happen until the world gives up on Hamas and puts it money behind the cliché that “Israel has a right to defend itself (but it better not).”

That is not going to happen today. Nor tomorrow. And not next month.

The third scenario, more likely, is a mini counter-offensive in Gaza, with aerial bombing of Hamas targets but without, God forbid, injuring any terrorists, usually described to the gullible and foolish media establishment as people who are handicapped, mentally ill or are small children who actually were playing soccer in a no-go zone near the security fence at Gaza.

And there is the other scenario, the one that is now in place.

It’s called Russian Roulette..

So, please, pray tonight for more miracles.

At just after 7:20 PM a mortar from Gaza struck inside the Israeli town of Sha’ar HaNegev.

The Red Alert siren did not go off. Residents did not have any warning of the incoming weapon.

No one was injured in the attack, but the rocket did damage part of the town’s infrastructure.

Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a decision by the Israel Defense Forces to bar a Palestinian runner from Gaza from participating in a marathon in Bethlehem but nevertheless recommended that he be allowed to participate in the race.

Olympian Nader Masri, 34, had asked Israel’s military for permission to travel to the second Bethlehem marathon that is to be held Friday.

Following a rejection from the military, Masri, with the help of the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, known as Gisha, appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled on Tuesday that it could not overrule a military decision. However, as Israeli courts often do, it injected its own quasi-legal opinion and recommended that Israel consider allowing the runner to leave to participate in the race.

“It is hoped, of course, that in the future the security situation will improve that will allow an easing of such restrictions.” Judge Daphne Barak-Erez wrote in her decision.

Masri has represented the Palestinian Authority in several international competitions, including in Ireland, Portugal, Belgium and Doha. He represented “Palestine” in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Two suspects were caught planting a bomb near the security fence separating southern Gaza from southern Israel, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Office.

Soldiers noticed the two men working on the ground near the fence in a suspicious manner and “chased them away” from the area, the IDF said.

A short time later, there was an explosion at the site. No one was injured and no damage was reported.

No further details were available on the identities or fate of the two suspects.

Israel’s new Iron Beam anti-mortar shell system achieved a high interception rate in tests that showed it “shoots down flying objects like flies,” according to the CEO of Rafael Advanced Systems, which developed the technology.

Yedidia Yaari told Israel Defense, “This is a system for a shorter range than Iron Dome,” which has been deployed around urban centers and has a high success rate of interception short and medium-range missiles.

The Iron Beam uses a laser that “is designed to intercept simpler munitions, such as mortars,” Yaari explained.

He added, “The system has undergone feasibility tests, and we’re now in the development stage. We’re after the demo, but there is another development phase ahead of us. There are technology models that prove that it has a very high interception rate.”

The system will give a bit of peace of mind to residents of the Gaza Belt communities, pounded by thousands of mortar shells for well over a decade.

Leaders of the communities have been hollering for years for the government to give the IDF the green light to invade Gaza and regain control that was lost by a soft policy against terrorism in the Oslo War, also known as the Second Intifada, which began in 2000.

The Defense Ministry for years consistently carried out a policy of restraint, preferring not to retaliate harshly for fear of sparking an escalation by Hamas terrorists, who always want the last word, or in this case, the last missile.

The only changes in the policy were when Tel Aviv was threatened, in November 2008, prior to the Operation Cast Lead counter-terrorist campaign, and a year and a half ago, when the IDF countered with the Pillar of Cloud campaign.

With these exceptions, southern Israel’s residents have been subject to enemy missile fire and mortar shelling attacks at any time day and night and have paid a heavy price. Dozens have been killed, hundreds have been wounded and thousands still suffer from post-trauma stress.

In the past year, the Defense Ministry has become more defensive and has retaliated almost after every mortar shell or Kassam rocket attack.

The response usually is symbolic, with Air Force planes and drones bombing weapons factories and smuggling tunnels that already are known to exist.

The Iron Beam system will offer more protection and will make it more difficult for Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza to ruin the lives of people in the Western Negev.

The IDF knows that Hamas eventually will try to use their longer-range missiles to attack Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Terrorists do not stockpile missiles. They use them to prove to themselves that normal civilization has no value in the eyes of their Allah.

Sometime in the future, when Israel has enough confidence to decisively wipe out the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza if it does rot away first, historians might write that Israel was strong by not touching off another war with the usual outcome of international condemnation of the country’s carrying out the right to defend itself.

They also should write that the bravery of Israel in the Negev who did not flee, and many of whom were killed, allowed the IDF to wait so many years before developing the Iron Beam.

Terrorists in northern Gaza shot at an IDF patrol near the Gaza security fence early Thursday afternoon as attacks on soldiers become almost daily.

No one was injured.

The army maintains a small base on the outskirts of kibbutz, located in the Western Negev.

Hamas has reminded everyone that peace talks or no peace talks, “the masses of the Palestinian peoples are still steadfast on every inch of the Palestinian land rejecting all compromises and concessions on their land.”

It’s official website stated, “The Israeli occupation’s escalating plans to impose a fait accompli in Palestine through settlement and Judaization would not succeed in changing the truth that Palestine belongs to the Palestinians.”

In case anyone in the Obama administration still thinks Hamas is referring to Judea and Samaria, the terrorist organization clarified, “On this day in 1976, the masses of the Palestinian people in Al-Muthalath, the Galilee and the Negev revolted against the Zionist occupation…

“38 years have passed since the uprising started, and the occupation has been persisting since then in Judaizing the land, seizing it and displacing its people.”

Hamas reiterated that ”all forms of resistance, especially the armed resistance, are the best method to restore the land.”The Obama administration strategy has been to topple one domino at a time,” and it figures that Hamas will fall into line or be left out in the cold if Mahmoud Abbas actually comes to an agreement with Israel on the establishment of the Palestinian Authority as a new country.

That will never happen. Period.

And if Kerry believes it will, the man really does need medical help.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has approved allowing the entry of  570 truckloads of construction materials, electrical equipment, telecommunications and plumbing materials into Hamas-controlled Gaza for construction of a Turkish hospital on the ruins of the destroyed Jewish community of Netzarim.

Turkey initiated the project three years ago without any coordination with Israel at a time when both countries’ relations were in the deep freeze.

The government of Prime Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who keeps a door open to Iran by embracing the Hamas terrorist government, had no problem in getting around Israel’s restrictions on “dual-use” equipment that also is used to build rockets and factories for weapons used to attack Israel. It simply used tunnels to smuggle equipment for  the 160-bed complex that is to cover 34 acres.

Ya’alon’s announcement came a day after  the Turkish deputy prime minister was quoted as saying that Israel is about to sign on the dotted line to pay millions of dollars to families of terrorists who tried to kill Israeli Navy commandos in the clash on the Mavi Mamara ship four years ago.

It is nice to know that Hamas finally is using the ruins of Gush Katif communities for something other than terrorist training camps. It needs a hospital to care for terrorists who are wounded by Israeli soldiers when they attack Israel with rockets or try to blow up Israeli soldiers at the security fence.

The Israeli government did not ask former residents of Netzarim for permission to bless Turkey’s grand humanitarian gesture.

If there is one place in the world that it is difficult for even President Shimon Peres to think that there will be peace, it is Gaza. Peres was his usual smug self with his head in the clouds when he assured everyone that expelling Jews and withdrawing Israel’s military eyes and ears from Gaza would bring peace and quiet.

After Hamas attacked Ashkelon, and then Ashdod, and Rehovot, the same Shimon Peres as President of the State of Israel, made a fool of himself by saying, in public no less – and this is a paraphrase but very close to the original quote –  “ I can’t understand why Hamas would so such a thing after all that we did for peace.”

The number of Israelis who trust Hamas is close to zero. The more Mahmoud Abbas and the entire Palestinian Authority regime proves to even Israel’s bleeding heart media that the Arabs have no interest in peace with Israel, the more the expulsion wrenches the stomach.

Hamas needs the hospital for Gaza civilians, many of whom have no problem hating Israel while at the same time begging for medical care at Israel’s hospitals. Some of the patients even change their minds after  medical care and realize that Jews actually are human beings and  not apes and pigs depicted by  Muslims preachers.

The idea of a hospital sounds great, but as awful as it is to think, hate is hate and it is a two-way street. Here is the response of one former Netzarim resident to The Jewish Press: “When the hospital is full, it should be blown up.”

That could be the ugly end to this ugly story, but a look at the reasons for the Israeli government’s second marriage with Turkey makes this article even uglier.

Turkey and Israel were great friends for years, carrying out joint military exercises and enjoying a healthy flow of goods and merchandise in two directions. Tens of thousands of Israel tourists flocked to Turkey’s resorts.

All of that changed when Erdogan got on his high horse during the Operation Cast Lead counter-terrorist campaign more than five years ago.