Southern residents wake to rocket sirens
Saturday calm broken by alarms as rocket launched from Gaza, with no casualties or damage reported
Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket into Israeli territory on Saturday morning, causing alert sirens to sound out in the Ashkelon area.
The rocket apparently fell in an open field and caused no casualties or damage.
On Thursday evening two rockets were fired into Israel, prompting the Israeli Air Force to strike five targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, aying it attacked three concealed rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip, a terror activity site in the central Gaza Strip and a weapons storage facility in the southern Gaza Strip.
The IDF regularly retaliates with air strikes in response to rocket attacks.
“We have repeatedly addressed the consequences facing those who seek to endanger the lives of innocent civilians,” IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said in a statement regarding Thursday’s strikes. “We shall persist with our determination to combat terror elements and eliminate the pending threat to Israeli lives.”
Earlier Thursday, emergency sirens sounded in several cities in southern Israel and citizens reported hearing explosions after rockets were launched at the region from the Gaza Strip. One rocket was thought to have landed in open territory near the city of Sderot in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, while another was intercepted by the Iron Dome system near the city of Ashkelon. No casualties or damage were reported.
Fifteen rockets have been launched from the Gaza Strip since Israeli forces embarked on a massive campaign to locate Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Frankel, 16, and Gil-ad Shaar, 16, who were kidnapped in the West Bank on Thursday June 12. Israeli leaders have held Hamas responsible for the abduction.
