Since 2001, rockets have been fired more than 12,800 times towards southern Israel from the Gaza strip. That’s an average of about three rockets a day for 11 years. Kids have grown up in southern Israeli cities, such as Sderot, living in constant fear and anxiety of incoming rocket attacks. Having to run to bomb shelters on a daily basis is no way to live anywhere in the world, but this is what the people in southern Israel have experienced every day for more than a decade.

Many of you may not know, but tensions of these constant rockets attacks by Hamas, the terrorist organization that governs the Gaza Strip, are starting finally to boil over. On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Israel launched Operation Pillar of Cloud in response to this 11-year rocket attack, sparked when one of these rockets hit an army jeep traveling near the border, injuring four Israeli soldiers.

Operation Pillar of Cloud began with a precision Israeli strike assassinating Ahmed Al-Jaabari, the second in command of the military wing of Hamas. Al-Jaabari was also responsible for keeping Israeli solider, Gilad Shalit, hostage for more than five years. Shalit was finally released on Oct. 18, 2011, when Israel traded 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, 300 of which were convicted murderers, for Gilad Shalit’s life and safe return to Israel.

The Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange is a prime example of the morals that Israel has followed since its independence on May 14, 1948. This new operation is going to be no different and all Israel has in mind is peace and nothing but peace. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, put it best: “If Israel were to put down its arms there would be no more Israel. If the Arabs were to put down their arms there would be no more war.”

Jason Unger is the vice-president of the Alabama Friends of Israel club.