Rocket fired from Gaza after Palestinian teen shot
No damage or injuries from missile; Gazan wounded by IDF after attempting to damage border fence
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A rocket launched from Gaza landed in the Negev Regional Council on Thursday night, the latest in a series of recent security incidents along the volatile Israeli-Gaza border.
The rocket fell in an open area and no damage or injuries were reported.
The missile came several hours after a Palestinian teen in Gaza who attempted to damage the border fence was shot by IDF soldiers operating nearby, the Israeli military said.
It was not clear if there was a connection between the rocket fire and the shooting.
A group of suspects had approached a buffer zone near the fence from the Gaza side and were attempting to damage it, an IDF spokesperson told AFP, adding that after “numerous” warnings to desist, “soldiers then resorted to aiming fire at the individuals’ lower extremities,” and reported “one hit.”
A Hamas official later confirmed that a 16-year old male was wounded in the leg during the incident and had been hospitalized in moderate condition.
On Tuesday, an IDF patrol operating along the Gaza border came under fire from an unidentified source in the Hamas-controlled territory Tuesday night. There were no injuries or damage.
The incidents come amid a week of renewed violence along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. A rocket launched from Gaza exploded Monday evening in the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage.
Last week, the Israeli Air Force struck targets in Gaza after several rockets hit Israeli territory, landing in open areas.
Last Tuesday, a Defense Ministry civilian worker was killed by sniper fire from the Gaza Strip, prompting retaliatory attacks by the IAF that killed a Palestinian toddler and her father.
In a string of attacks and attempted attacks last Monday, a rocket fired from Gaza landed next to a children’s bus stop in the Ashkelon area, a bus bombing was narrowly averted in Bat Yam, and a police officer was stabbed and seriously wounded in the West Bank.
In the wake of last week’s violence, the IDF briefly closed the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Gaza Strip to all commercial traffic, and deployed three Iron Dome rocket-interception batteries to the area near the southern cities of Beersheba, Sderot and Ashdod over Wednesday and Thursday.
Following last week’s escalation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel considers Hamas responsible for the recent attacks emanating from Gaza and will make the terror group face the consequences.
The Times of Israel Community.