The Israeli Air Force hit terror targets in the Gaza Strip overnight on Sunday in response to renewed rocket fire following , the IDF Spokesperson Office said.
A further 15 rockets fell overnight and in the early hours of Monday morning on the Sderot area areas following the IAF strike, Army Radio reported.
IDF spokesmen announced that the IAF struck terrorist targets in Gaza, including a rocket launching site in the northern Gaza Strip and a center of terrorist activity in southern Gaza.
Palestinian sources announced damage done to two rocket launching squads in Khan Younis and Beit Hanoun, with no injuries reported.
The IDF said that the airstrike was in response to high trajectory fire into Israeli territory after Palestinians in Gaza fired three long-range Grad rockets at Beersheba on Sunday morning, threatening to end a brief period of calm.
The Popular Resistance Committees, one of several smaller terrorist factions in the Gaza Strip, said it had launched one of the projectiles. Hamas's armed wing said it fired mortar shells at IDF bases in the area.
The rockets triggered air raid sirens on the outskirts of the city, and hit in open areas, the Israel Police said. A number of false alarms took place Monday morning, with the IDF initially reporting several rockets fired Monday morning. No rockets were fired between the hours of 6 a.m. and 12 p.m.
The Beersheba Municipality canceled school on Sunday as a result of the threat of ongoing violence. Beersheba Mayor Rubik Danilovich noted that in recent years, Palestinian rockets had hit four schools and kindergartens in the Negev city, adding that casualties were avoided because they were closed ahead of time.
“If there are missiles, there will be no school,” said Danilovich, who took the decision to shut the schools despite instructions by the IDF Home Front Command to keep them open.
School is to resume as usual on Monday, as no rockets fell in the area overnight.
Earlier on Sunday, two short-range Kassam rockets exploded in the Eshkol region, also striking open areas and triggering rocket alert sirens.
Shortly after that attack, the Israel Air Force struck a rocket-launching cell in central Gaza.
“We identified an accurate strike, and subsequent explosions [of rockets in the cell’s possession]” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said.
Palestinian sources said the strike killed one Hamas man and wounded another. The army said the cell was in the final stages of preparing to fire into southern Israel.
The violence continued later in the day when Palestinians fired mortar shells at an IDF force on a routine patrol of the Gaza border.
No injuries were reported.
In the afternoon, three Palestinian rockets exploded in the Hof Ashkelon region, triggering sirens.
Soon afterward, four rockets struck in the Eshkol region.
The violence follows a three-day lull since last week, when Gaza-based terrorists fired more than 80 rockets at Israeli towns and cities.