Palestinians fire rocket into southern Israel

The Gaza-Israel border has been mostly quiet, with Hamas has batting both the Covid pandemic and rival terror groups.

By World Israel News Staff and AP

Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket into southern Israel on Friday, the Israeli military announced.

There were no reports of casualties or damage and no one immediately claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

The Gaza-Israel border has been mostly quiet since a coronavirus outbreak spread in the Hamas-ruled coastal territory in August. Hamas has its hands full, between the Covid pandemic and its violent clashes with rival terror groups in the Gaza Strip, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

In September, Gazan terrorists fired 13 rockets into Israel.

The strike was launched on the day of a historic signing ceremony in Washington, where two Gulf Arab states established full diplomatic relations with Israel.

As President Donald Trump hosted the peace treaty signing ceremony at the White House on September 16, terrorists in Gaza fired two rockets at Israel, sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis scrambling to reach bomb shelters. The Iron Dome defense system shot down one of the rockets, but the second exploded on a street in the port city of Ashdod, injuring four Israelis, one moderately and three lightly.

IDF aircraft retaliated with airstrikes at Hamas targets in Gaza, but overnight residents of a dozen communities that border Gaza were shocked out of bed by alerts starting at 4:30 a.m,. when terrorists fired 13 rockets over the next hour.

Once radar detects incoming rockets and sets of alarms, people living in the small city of Sderot and other local towns and farming villages have only 15 seconds to reach shelter before the rockets explode.

Eight of the rockets fired from Gaza during the Sept. 16-17  attack were intercepted by Iron Dome, and the others exploded in unpopulated areas, the army said.

The  Islamic Jihad terror group announced that the morning attack was carried out as part of the “bomb for bomb” equation following the air force retaliation. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem also said that the rockets were a response to the “IDF attack.”