The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has reported that unspecified Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip violated an emerging ceasefire after just 15 minutes, telling Newsweek that they intercepted a rocket fired into southern Israel.
Rocket sirens wailed in the evacuated southern Israeli towns of Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha early Friday morning, shortly after a four-day ceasefire took effect allowing a prisoner exchange and the delivery of humanitarian aid to the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip.
“There was a missile and it was intercepted,” the IDF Spokesperson Unit told Newsweek of the reports, noting that it was fired at 7:15 a.m. local time; 15 minutes after the ceasefire came into effect – which the IDF calls a “pause in operations”.
It is not yet clear which group was responsible for the alleged rocket fire, although the IDF had previously said that Hamas was responsible for all attacks from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel because of its influence over other local militant groups.
A rocket is fired from the Iron Dome defense missile system in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on November 12, 2019. The IDF told Newsweek that it intercepted a missile fired on Friday morning shortly after a temporary ceasefire took effect. JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images
Newsweek has contacted a Hamas spokesman via WhatsApp for comment.
Friday’s pause in fighting came after several weeks of tough negotiations between Israel, Hamas, the United States, Egypt and Qatar. It is the first significant lull in fighting since Hamas’ incursion into southern Israel on October 7, which killed around 1,200 people and returned around 240 to the Gaza Strip as hostages.
The Israeli bombardment of the Strip began immediately and has killed more than 13,000 Palestinians to date, according to Gaza’s health ministry figures cited by the Associated Press. The ministry has now stopped publishing updated casualty figures, saying it is not possible to keep track of the rising death toll during the Israeli offensive.
The ceasefire will allow hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt. However, there appears to be little hope that the fighting will end any time soon.
Israeli leaders have vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas in Gaza, a 141-square-mile coastal strip controlled by the Islamist group since 2007. The small state has been under Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the same year.
There have been fierce clashes between the IDF and Hamas in the northern part of the Gaza Strip for several weeks, with Israeli authorities ordering residents to evacuate to the south. But the IDF appears to be preparing for an offensive in the southern part of Gaza shortly after the end of the current ceasefire.
On Friday morning, the Times of Israel reported that the IDF used riot dispersal measures to prevent Palestinians from returning to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip during the lull in fighting.
Update 11/24/23, 3:45 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional details.
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Newsweek strives to challenge conventional wisdom and find connections in the search for common ground.