Gaza rockets fired on Israel for the second time in

Gaza rockets fired on Israel for the second time in hours after the IDF ended the strike on the strip

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Gaza terrorist groups fired a volley of rockets into southern Israel after midnight Thursday, less than an hour after the IDF ended an air offensive in the Hamas-ruled enclave in response to an earlier rocket attack.

The Israeli military said the Iron Dome missile defense system managed to intercept all four missiles fired from the Gaza Strip just after 2 a.m

The salvo was followed by more red alert sirens in Gaza’s border towns, but the IDF later said these were triggered by gunfire, consistent with previous Palestinian media reports of gunmen in Gaza opening fire on Israeli planes.

Less than an hour earlier, the IDF ended airstrikes in Gaza in response to an earlier missile fired Wednesday night that landed near a house in the southern city of Sderot, the second missile strike in about 48 hours.

The army said its jets were targeting a military post in central Gaza as well as the opening of a so-called terror tunnel leading to an underground site where rocket engines were manufactured. According to news site Ynet, the site was used by fighters from Hamas’ military wing. The IDF said its strike had dealt a severe blow to Gaza’s missile production process.

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“The terrorist organization Hamas is responsible for what is happening in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement, maintaining its long-held position that since the group rules Gaza, it is independently responsible for all rockets, which are fired from the area whether his own fighters were behind the launches or not.

Wednesday night’s rocket attack was the second since Monday after nearly four months of calm on the Gaza Strip border. It came at the end of a tense day in Jerusalem, when Israeli nationalists were prevented by police from marching through the Old City’s Damascus Gate, a popular meeting place for Palestinians. Hamas, the terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip, had threatened an attack if the march continued.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qasim said after Thursday’s IDF counterattack that “the bombing of Gaza will strengthen our people’s persistence and resistance to continue the struggle and escalate support and aid to our people in Jerusalem.”

Wednesday night’s rocket attack caused damage to a car and a wall near a house in Sderot. The missile apparently landed outside of town, but a large shrapnel ricocheted off and struck near the house. According to Hebrew-language media reports, hundreds of ball bearings loaded into the rocket were found at the scene.

None of the Gaza-based terrorist groups directly claimed responsibility for the rocket fire on Wednesday and Monday, although several media reports blamed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad for Monday’s attack. According to public broadcaster Kan, the Israeli security establishment believes that the earlier rocket was fired by radicals within Islamic Jihad acting alone, and that Hamas is in no position to act against such renegade actors, even if they were it will.

After Monday’s rocket, the IDF said it had bombed a number of targets, including a site used by Hamas to manufacture weapons in the Gaza Strip.

In the past, Israel has responded with air strikes on Hamas locations, regardless of the identity of the group that launched the attack. More rarely, when the terrorist group claimed responsibility, it has directed its response to Islamic Jihad.

In recent days, violent clashes have erupted between Palestinian rioters and police on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, injuring dozens of Palestinians and several police officers.

Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorist groups have repeatedly labeled the holy site’s focal point as the red line. Police action to quell unrest there over the past year was one of the triggers of an 11-day war in the Gaza Strip last May.

Aaron Boxerman contributed to this report

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