BICOM

After several hours of overnight quiet, much of southern and central Israel woke early this morning to the sound of rocket warning sirens.

The IDF said that at least one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system over the Tel Aviv region. During the same barrage, which Hamas said it had fired, a rocket slammed into a home in Ashkelon. Police said that it had caused damage, while Channel Ten reported that an eight-year-old had been lightly wounded by shrapnel. Israel Radio said that the volley of rockets lightly also injured two others. The morning rocket fire comes after more than 120 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel yesterday, with 16 having been intercepted by the Iron Dome.

Israel’s air force continued to carry out air strikes on strategic targets in the Gaza Strip, hitting around 60 targets yesterday. It said that it had targeted a further 15 sites overnight, including a Gaza school used as a rocket launching site, from which a mortar on Friday was fired killing a four-year-old Israeli boy. Also overnight, Palestinian officials said that an Israeli air strike hit a Gaza tower block, killing two and injuring around 20 people.

With Operation Protective Edge entering its fiftieth day, AP reports that around 70 per cent of an estimated 40,000 residents of Israeli farming communities near the Gaza border have left their homes due to the ongoing violence. The government has offered the evacuees financial assistance. Meanwhile, a public debate has ensued over whether the Israeli school year should begin in the south of the country as scheduled next week, in light of the conflict. Education Minister Shai Piron met with local community leaders yesterday to discuss their concerns.

Also yesterday, a Channel Two poll indicated that the approval rating for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had plummeted from 82 per cent to 38 per cent during the last month. However, neither the sample size nor the questions asked were immediately published.