BICOM

A Grad rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip yesterday evening towards the southern Israeli town of Netivot. Israel’s Air Force (IAF) responded with strategic strikes against weapons and training sites in Gaza.

Air raid sirens wailed yesterday evening in Netivot, a town of around 26,000 residents, for the first time since Operation Pillar of Defence in 2012. A single rocket was fired, landing in an open field close to the town without causing damage or injuries. It is the latest episode to a sharp increase in the number of rockets fired from Gaza and attacks on IDF border patrols over the past few weeks.

Hours later, the IAF carried out air strikes against specific targets, including “a terror activity site and a weapon manufacturing facility in the northern Gaza strip and a weapon storage facility in the southern Gaza Strip,” according to an IDF statement. Palestinian reports said that among the targets were two training facilities belonging to the military wing of Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since violently overthrowing the Fatah faction in 2007. The same reports claimed that two Palestinians were injured in the air strikes.

IDF spokesman Peter Lerner commented, “The bases of Gaza terrorism and its industry of death will not be immune while our citizens are being attacked. It is our responsibility, right and obligation to defend Israel from Gaza based aggression.”

The increased frequency of attacks during the past month has included a salvo of five rockets aimed at the Israeli city of Ashkelon, which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system and two rockets which were fired shortly after the conclusion of Ariel Sharon’s funeral. In response, Israel recently launched its first pre-emptive strikes for some time, targeting Islamic Jihad operatives responsible for a number of rocket attacks.

Earlier this week, head of IDF Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned that “Some 170,000 rockets and missiles are threatening the State of Israel from all regions.”