Amid peak tensions, army to launch multi-day exercise in south
Air force to run separate drill over the entire country as Gaza terrorist groups fire rockets at Israel and army retaliates with strikes in Strip
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The Israeli military announced it was launching a large exercise across southern Israel on Sunday, amid heightened tensions with the Gaza Strip.
In addition, the air force announced it was starting its own drill throughout the country.
The Israel Defense Forces said the exercises were planned far in advance as part of its annual training schedule.
“They are meant to preserve the fitness and preparedness of the troops,” the army said.
The exercise in southern Israel is scheduled to begin on Sunday night and last through Wednesday.
The IDF said residents of southern Israel and visitors to the area should expect to see increased presence of ground troops, as well as air force helicopters and jets in the skies over southern Israel.
“The exercise will take place in the Lachish region, in the cities of Kiryat Gat, Ashdod and Ashkelon, and in the communities of Shomria and Atid,” the army said.
The air force drill, which began on Sunday morning and was scheduled to last until Thursday, was set to take place in the skies over the entire country.
“Explosions will be heard and test sirens will be activated on air force bases and the areas surrounding them,” the army said.
The exercises come amid peak tensions in the Gaza border area, following multiple exchanges of mortar and rocket fire and violence along the security fence.
Late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, after six projectiles were fired overnight at southern Israel by Palestinian terror groups in the coastal enclave — shattering an unofficial ceasefire agreement — Israeli jets carried out two rounds of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, the army said.
The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted four of the projectiles, with another apparently landing in Israeli territory and one failing to clear the Gaza border, the army said.
In response to the first two rockets, the air force carried out 10 airstrikes on Hamas targets in Gaza.
A few hours later, Israeli air raids targeted “five terror targets in a military compound belonging to the naval force of the terror group Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said.
The rocket attacks throughout the night sent thousands of Israelis to bomb shelters as sirens were repeatedly triggered to warn of incoming fire.
The army said it held Hamas, which rules the Strip, responsible for the rocket attacks.
The renewed rocket fire followed significant clashes on the Gaza border on Friday and a massive flareup last week, in which Palestinian terror groups launched over 100 rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel and the military responded by striking more than 65 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad sites in the Strip.
In response to the rocket attack on Saturday evening, the IDF launched its first strikes on targets throughout the Gaza Strip just before midnight.
“The IDF, using fighter jets, attacked 10 terror targets in three compounds belonging to the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. Among the targets that were attacked were two sites used to manufacture and store weapons and a military compound,” the army said.
According to the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency, the planes struck sites in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood, in the Nuseirat refugee camp and outside the city of Khan Younis. The Palestinian Quds news site also reported Israeli strikes outside the city of Rafah. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
A video posted on social media reportedly showed the bombing in Shejaiya, which sent a large fireball into the sky.
#عاجل المشاهد الأولى لقصف طائرات الاحتلال الحربية لموقع اليرموك التابع للمقاومة في حي الشجاعية بغزة #شهاب_عاجل pic.twitter.com/7I7gODz3PU
— وكالة شهاب للأنباء (@ShehabAgency) June 2, 2018
The rocket launches from Gaza appeared to be the first violation of a fragile ceasefire in effect since Wednesday morning, but came after a weekend of intense violence along the border.
On the Palestinian side of the border, thousands attended a funeral for a young female volunteer medic who Palestinians say was shot and killed by the IDF while she was tending to the injured during violent protests on the Gaza border.
The border tensions comes following a week that saw the worst escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 war in Gaza. Palestinian terror groups on Wednesday and Thursday fired more than 100 rockets and mortars at towns and cities in southern Israel, and the IDF responded with dozens of airstrikes on Hamas military targets.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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