Southern Israelis scurry to bomb shelters over false rocket alarm

Incoming rocket alert sirens blared in southern Israeli communities on Wednesday, sending thousands of residents to bomb shelters in what the military said was a false alarm.

At approximately 3:40 p.m. the sirens were sounded in the Hof Ashkelon region, just north of the restive Gaza Strip.

The military did not say what might have triggered the system. In the past, the military has blamed similar occurrences on the system being oversensitive.

The scare came days after the Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups launched some 200 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel, and the Israel Defense Forces retaliated by bombing dozens of Hamas targets in the Palestinian enclave.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel was in the midst of a “military campaign” in light of the flareup.

“We are in a military campaign in which there have been exchanges of blows. I am prepared to say that the Israel Defense Forces is prepared for any scenario,” Netanyahu said.

On Saturday night, a ceasefire of sorts was brokered by Egypt and other international bodies, though Israel was not directly involved in the talks. The violence has abated, but tensions endured and cross-border attacks continued.

Recent months have seen daily arson attacks from Gaza with incendiary kites and balloons that have burned thousands of acres of Israeli land; regular riots and clashes along the border, which have resulted in over 130 Palestinians killed by IDF gunfire; and occasional outbursts of mortar and rocket fire by Gaza terrorist groups, which have prompted dozens of Israeli retaliatory airstrikes against Hamas positions.

This violence has raised tensions between Israel and Hamas to the highest they have been since the 2014 Gaza war.

Following the flareup over the weekend and continued airborne arson attacks, Israel severely limited the movement of goods into the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and has threatened further action if the stream of kites and balloons does not stop.

In recent days, many officials and commentators in Israel, Gaza and the international community have warned that another war in the Palestinian enclave was imminent in light of increased violence along the border, unless actions were taken to calm the situation.