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Israel responds to Gaza missile fire
Israeli forces bombed three Hamas facilities in response to four missiles fired from Gaza towards southern Israel last night.
Two of the missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system and one landed in an open field. The fourth hit the Ghazi Al-Shwa Public School in Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip. A 30-year-old man sustained light injuries to his leg while running to a shelter in Sderot and two others were treated by paramedics for shock.
A statement from the IDF spokesperson Unit said “in response to the rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel earlier today, the Israeli Air Force targeted a Hamas military compound in the southern Gaza Strip… the military facilities were used as training and weapons storage compounds.”
Last night was the sixth night in a row that missiles were fired at Israel from Gaza. 16 missiles have been fired at Israel since US President Donald Trump’s announcement recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last week, the highest concentration of missile attack since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.
The IDF announced that the Kerem Shalom Crossing, from which goods enter and leave Gaza, as well as the pedestrian Erez Crossing would be closed on Thursday, in light of “security events and in accordance with security assessments”.
Yedioth Ahronot’s military affairs correspondent Yossi Yehoshua argued that Israel is “witnessing the practical collapse of the deterrence” that was achieved by Operation Protective Edge. “The IDF has tried to use limited operations to restore things to the way they were. Israel’s goal is clear: to avoid an escalation in violence at least until the underground barrier around the Gaza Strip has been completed so as to neutralise the option of using tunnels to attack civilian communities and IDF bases,” Yehoshua added.
The latest tensions are also occurring against the backdrop of the IDF’s announcement on Sunday that it successfully destroyed another underground tunnel that entered Israeli territory, the second in less than two months.