Ashkelon

A burst of light, apparently caused by an Iron Dome interceptor missile detonating itself, illuminates the night sky over the northern Gaza Strip on September 11, 2019. (Screen capture: Twitter)

September 12, 2019, 12:19 am

False alarms triggered north of Gaza as IDF bombs Hamas sites in reprisal raids

Israeli military strikes terror group’s positions in the Strip in response to rocket attack earlier in the day; anti-aircraft fire sets off sirens in southern Israel

By Judah Ari Gross

Israelis run for cover as air raid sirens sound in the Israeli city of Sderot on March 12, 2014. (AFP/David Buimovitch)

September 11, 2019, 8:14 pm

Rocket sirens sound in false alarm as Gaza tensions rise

Alarms come hours after 3 rockets fired from Gaza, lightly damaging an Israeli home, following Israeli airstrikes

By Judah Ari Gross

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip that struck an open area in the Hof Ashkelon region of southern Israel on September 11, 2019. (Yediot Mehashetach)

September 11, 2019, 1:49 pm

Gaza rockets fired at southern Israel for second day in a row

In response, Israeli tank destroys two Hamas posts in northern Gaza; attack comes less than a day after two projectiles fired at Ashdod and Ashkelon from the Strip

By Judah Ari Gross

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu taken off stage during a campaign event in Ashdod due to incoming rocket sirens, September 10, 2019. (Screenshot: Twitter)

September 11, 2019, 9:58 am

Netanyahu blasts Blue and White for celebrating after rocket forces him offstage

PM says he doesn’t know who was more gleeful, Gaza terror groups or Blue and White; top Likud officials say he had no choice but to follow bodyguards’ orders at campaign rally

By TOI staff

Explosions seen in the Gaza Strip after a reported IDF Strike in response to rocket fire on Ashdod and Ashkelon on September 11, 2019 (Screencapture/Twitter)

September 11, 2019, 2:43 am

IDF airstrikes hit 15 sites in Gaza after 2 rockets fired at Israeli cities

Rockets appear to target Netanyahu election rally in Ashdod; security guards force him from stage; Iron Dome intercepts both

By TOI staff and Judah Ari Gross

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd R) meets, following a rocket attack from Gaza, with his defense chiefs at the Kirya military base in Tel Aviv on September 10, 2019 (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

September 11, 2019, 12:47 am

Netanyahu meets defense chiefs after being targeted by rocket fire from Gaza

Iron Dome intercepts two rockets fired at southern cities while PM was addressing election rally there; security guards forced him from stage

By TOI staff and Judah Ari Gross

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, being moved away from a campaign event stage while surrounded by security as rockets are shot at Ashdod on September 10, 2019. (screen capture: Twitter)

September 11, 2019, 12:17 am

Netanyahu derided by right and left as he’s forced to take shelter from rockets

Rival parties condemn PM’s Gaza strategy after he is led off stage during attack; Bennett calls it a ‘national humiliation’; Lapid: ‘Netanyahu is done and can leave the stage’

By TOI staff

September 10, 2019, 9:47 pm

Netanyahu briefly whisked away from campaign rally as rockets fired from Gaza

PM later returns to stage; IDF says 2 projectiles fired at southern Israel, both intercepted by Iron Dome; Blue and White event in Ashkelon also cut short due to attack

By TOI staff and Judah Ari Gross

Thousands attend joint funeral of Tahel Maul, 16, and her older sister Yarin, 19, at Ashkelon's Giv'at Zion cemetery, August 29, 2019 (Screen grab from newsenders via Israel Hayom)

August 30, 2019, 10:39 am

Thousands attend funeral of teen sisters killed by suspected drunk driver

Ashkelon mayor eulogizes sisters who were ‘inseparable in life and death’; third sister, 14, fighting for her life

By TOI staff

16-year-old Tahel Maul, killed in a car crash in Ashkelon on August 29, 2019. (Courtesy)

August 29, 2019, 3:04 pm

Teen sisters killed in crash; driver suspected of drunk driving

Third sister, 14, fighting for her life; driver, 22, boyfriend of one of the fatalities, in moderate condition; engine thrown from car by force of collision with tree

By TOI staff

An IDF soldier and a tank during a military drill near the Gaza Strip, late July 2019. (IDF)

July 31, 2019, 11:45 pm

In future Gaza war, Israel said aiming to weaken Hamas — but not topple it

IDF completes four-day drill that is Gaza Division’s biggest since 2014 war; soldiers exercise response to attempted takeover of Ashkelon, evacuation of residents

By Michael Bachner

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the border of the Gaza Strip on October 20, 2015. (Haim Zach / GPO)

July 11, 2019, 2:04 pm

PM says preparing for possible ‘surprising’ Gaza offensive, but prefers calm

Tensions escalate following IDF’s accidental killing of Hamas operative on border; Netanyahu says elections won’t deter him from acting to ensure southern communities feel safe

By TOI staff

Rivkah Jamil, 89, died on July 7, 2019 from injuries suffered while running to a bomb shelter in southern Israel in May during an onslaught of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. (Courtesy)

July 7, 2019, 4:36 pm

Woman dies of injuries from fall while fleeing May rocket barrage

Rivkah Jamil, 89, becomes fifth fatality of flareup with Gaza; was hospitalized in serious condition when hurt while seeking shelter

By TOI staff

Sampling petrus bone in the Department of Archaeogenetics ancient DNA laboratory at the Max PIanck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH). (Antje Wissgott)

July 3, 2019, 9:00 pm

Know thine enemy: DNA study solves ancient riddle of origins of the Philistines

High-tech analysis finds empirical proof that the Kingdom of Israel’s biblical foes came to the Holy Land from southern Europe

By Amanda Borschel-Dan

Mahmoud Abu Asabeh, 48, from the West Bank town of Halhul north of Hebron, was killed late Monday, November 12, 2018, when a rocket launched by Gaza terrorists struck a home in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. (Twitter screen capture)

May 8, 2019, 5:06 pm

Palestinian killed in rocket attack to be recognized as terror victim

Mahmoud Abu Asabeh from West Bank died when a rocket fired from Gaza hit a building in Ashkelon; family suing fire services for leaving scene before finding him

By TOI staff