WarSclerotic

Rocket hits building on southern kibbutz, injuring three | The Times of Israel.

Over 40 missiles fired at western Negev over Tuesday in dramatic escalation

 

Rocket and mortars rained on southern Israel Tuesday as tensions between Israel and Gaza escalated dramatically.

 

One rocket hit a building on Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, setting it on fire and injuring three people according to initial reports. One person is in moderate condition and the other two suffered from shock.

 

 

Over 40 Kassam rockets, Grad missiles and mortar shells were fired by Gazan terrorists into the area surrounding the Strip. All the rockets landed in open areas and there were no injuries or damage reported.

 

Three Grad missiles were fired at the town of Netivot at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. All three landed in open areas near the town.

 

Several rockets were fired into the Eshkol, Hof Ashkelon, Sdot Negev and Shaar Hanegev regions in the morning and afternoon into the night.

 

Israeli planes struck the central Gaza strip following the second volley of rockets, killing two terrorists in a rocket-launching squad, the Israel Defense Forces said on its website. Military sources promised to respond to the rocket fire, Channel 2 news reported.

 

The rocket strikes were the latest salvo in a period which has seen multiple cross-border incidents involving Gazan terrorists and the IDF.

 

Responsibility for the morning rocket fire was claimed by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades, Hamas’s military wing, which said it was aiming at an IDF base at Zikim, close to Ashkelon. It said it fired them in response to the death of one of its members, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Monday — itself a response to previous rocket fire from Gaza.

 

Earlier, in the small hours of Tuesday morning, IAF planes struck a terrorist cell planting explosives near the border fence in the central Gaza Strip. A Palestinian health official says two Gaza men were killed as a result.

 

That airstrike came hours after Israeli planes attacked a terrorist cell in the northern Gaza Strip as its members were in the midst of trying to fire rockets at the western Negev on Monday evening.

 

Palestinian sources said the strike was carried out in Beit Hanoun and two Palestinians were killed as well as several wounded.

 

One of the casualties in the later strike was the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam brigades member, Ynet reported.

 

An earlier IDF sortie Monday also targeted terror targets in Beit Hanoun, the IDF said, killing two members of Islamic Jihad.

 

Also Monday, a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in an open area near the city of Sderot. No injuries were reported.

 

On Monday morning, Said Fashapshe, 36 and a father-of-four, a resident of Haifa who had been employed by the Defense Ministry for years and working on the Israel-Egypt border fence for the past 18 months, was killed in a terrorist attack there. Terrorists fired on a convoy of construction workers.

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