BICOM

Israeli civilians continued to come under intense rocket fire Monday afternoon, overnight and Tuesday morning. Two empty schools in Ashkelon received direct hits on Monday, and Tuesday morning saw a bus in Beer Sheva severely damaged by shrapnel from a grad rocket which exploded close by. All schools in the south of Israel have been shut during the operation. Beer Sheva was targeted by at least five rockets Monday night and a further 25 were fired towards the southern city early Tuesday morning, 13 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. No injuries were reported.

The local population spent the night in shelters as sirens and rockets continued throughout the hours of darkness in Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat, Sderot, the Beer Tuvia Regional Council, the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council and the Eshkol Regional Council. Yesterday afternoon a 40-year-old man sustained light wounds when he was hit by a car while running for cover in Sderot, and a 63-year-old man was lightly injured when shrapnel hit his vehicle.

According to the IDF, 1,128 rockets and mortar shells had been launched from Gaza since the start of the operation. In total 641 of them have landed in Israel, 37 in built-up areas while 121 have landed on Palestinian territory. The Iron Dome system has intercepted 324 rockets headed for populated areas.