Sappers called after rocket found at southern Israel high school

Police sappers were called on Sunday to a high school in a Gaza border community after a rocket, thought to be from a barrage over the weekend, was discovered close to the classrooms.

A spokesperson for the local regional council said it appeared the missile was faulty and had exploded before it hit the ground.

Specialist teams moved in to deal with the device and remove it from the scene. There were no injuries reported.

The discovery came shortly after sappers attended an incident close to a daycare center in the southern town of Sderot where a security guard spotted a suspicious object, apparently part of an airborne incendiary device.

Thirty-four rockets were fired at Israel overnight Friday and Saturday morning, according to the IDF, 13 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Two of the rockets fell in Gaza and the rest were said to have landed in open areas.

In response to the rocket fire, Israeli aircraft attacked 95 targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The army said the targets included military and weapons manufacturing facilities through the Strip, a factory in Khan Younis producing cement used in subterranean tunnels and a four-story building in Gaza City headquartering Hamas security services.

Islamic Jihad announced later on Saturday it had agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire to end an escalating exchange of fire with Israel.

A spokesman for the group told the Gaza-based Safa news site that a ceasefire agreement went into effect following Egyptian communication with its leadership.

He said Islamic Jihad would remain committed to the ceasefire as long as Israel did likewise.

There was no immediate acknowledgement of the ceasefire declaration in Israel, which in the past has denied proclamations by Gaza-based terror groups regarding understandings to end fighting.

Israel views Hamas as ultimately responsible for any attacks emanating from the territory it controls, regardless of the source.

A few hours after Islamic Jihad announced the ceasefire, the Eshkol Regional Council lifted orders that residents must remain in close proximity to bomb shelters.

The rocket fire came amid a deadly flareup in violence in the Gaza Strip. Earlier on Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered at five locations along the border, burning tires and throwing rocks and firebombs at Israeli troops who responded with tear gas and occasional live fire.

Five protesters were killed and another 170 were injured in the clashes with IDF troops, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said. One of those killed was blown up by his own hand grenade, which exploded prematurely, witnesses said.

Earlier this week, a rocket was launched at southern Israel from Gaza, triggering sirens in a number of communities in the Eshkol region, ending a week-long stretch of relative calm in the coastal enclave. In response to that attack, the IDF said it hit eight Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, including training bases and a weapons production facility.

Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have participated in a series of protests and riots dubbed the “Great March of Return,” which have mostly involved the burning of tires and rock-throwing along the security fence, but have also seen shooting attacks, bombings and attempted border breaches as well as the sending of incendiary balloons and kites into Israel.

At least 160 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more have been injured in the clashes with IDF troops, according to AP figures. Hamas, an Islamist terror group that seized control of the Strip in 2007 and seeks to destroy Israel, has acknowledged that dozens of the dead were its members. An Israeli soldier was shot dead by a sniper on the border.