Air Force hits Hamas targets, responding to rockets from Gaza

The Iron Dome intercepted rockets from Gaza Friday. In response, the IAF struck Hamas targets, after which a salvo of rockets struck the southern Israeli city of Sderot. 

By: TPS

The Israel Air Force hit targets in the Gaza Strip Friday night following rocket fire at Israel earlier in the evening, and a rocket subsequently hit the town of Sderot causing damage to cars and buildings.

“The Air Force struck two terror targets in the Gaza Strip. The targets hit were a training compound and a weapons storage facility belonging to the terror organization Hamas,” the IDF said in a statement.

The statement said the attacks had come in response to rocket fire at communities on the Gaza periphery and said the IDF views Hamas as bearing sole responsibility for events in the Gaza Strip.

At around 6:30 pm sirens sounded in some 20 communities in the Gaza periphery after two rockets were fired into Israeli territory. An Iron Dome missile defense battery intercepted one of the rockets, and the other fell in open fields. Shortly afterward, air raid sirens sounded again as another salvo of rockets was launched. Two launches were identified but the rockets fell inside Gaza.

The rocket that hit Sderot was fired a few minutes after the IAF strike on Hamas targets.

Palestinian sources reported two people dead in the strike and 15 injured.

Earlier in the day, thousands of Palestinians rioted in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip in a “Day of Rage” called in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. One Palestinian man was reportedly killed in the incidents on the Gaza border.