The Israel Defense Forces ( IDF) spokesperson announced that at least six rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel late Sunday night and early Monday, shattering months of quiet since ‘Operation Pillar of Defense’ and prompting Israel to launch airstrikes against two weapons storage facilities, a rocket-launching site and a Islamic Jihad training ground.
“These rocket attacks are an intolerable act of aggression against Israel and its civilians. Hamas is held accountable for all acts of terrorism deriving from the Gaza Strip,” said the spokesperson, Lt.Col Peter Lerner.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon also ordered the closure of the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings to Gaza, in response to the rocket fire.
Red alert sirens sounded across several regions of southern Israel, giving residents only 15 seconds to run into shelters in the worst such attacks since last November.
There were no reports of injuries.
Four of the rockets exploded in open areas near Netivot and the Bnei Shimon region, west of the city of Beersheba.
The Iron Dome system intercepted two of the projectiles, believed to have been Grad rockets.
Sirens were also heard near the Beduin town of Rahat in the Negev and in the Ashkelon Regional Council.
The IDF said that the rockets had likely been launched from the northern Gaza Strip.
The IDF was checking the possibility that the rockets were launched by radical Salafists who do not recognize Hamas rule, or as an act of defiance by the terrorist group Islamic Jihad, which earlier Sunday announced that it was suspending ties with the Hamas government which rules the Gaza Strip.