Rocket sirens wail in southern Israel but IDF says false alarm
Warning comes after a day of riots along the Gaza-Israel border in which dozens of Palestinians said wounded
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Rocket warning sirens wailed Friday night in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip, but the IDF later said it appeared to be a false alarm.
It was not immediately clear what caused the alarm, but it came on a day of fierce riots along the Israel Gaza border in which Palestinians said 46 people were injured by the IDF.
Citing the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, the Haaretz daily reported 46 were lightly or moderately wounded by live and rubber bullets. Of those, 41 were injured during clashes at a number of locations along the Gaza border.
There were also clashes in the West Bank.
Since US President Donald Trump’s December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, there have been violent protests every Friday in the West Bank and Gaza, although their size has shrunk in recent weeks. There have also been an increase in rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza.
While welcomed in Israel, Trump’s declaration was met with anger by Palestinians, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas saying the US was no longer an honest broker in peace talks and the Gaza-based terror group Hamas calling for an intifada, or violent uprising. Trump stressed his recognition wasn’t taking a position on the city’s boundaries.
The protests also come amid heightened tensions following a terror attack in the West Bank earlier this week in which Rabbi Raziel Shevach, an Israeli father of six, was gunned down on a West Bank highway on Tuesday night.
The Times of Israel Community.