Israel and Hamas are very familiar with the unwritten rules established when the last military confrontation between them ended two years ago. They would prefer to avoid a renewed conflict that would probably not be to either side’s advantage.
Photo archive: Sderot Media Center
a local Gaza group that identifies with ISIS’s ideology claims responsibility for the rocket fire, which is seen as a challenge to Hamas in Gaza.
A rocket fired from Gaza hit just outside of a house in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Sunday afternoon, sparking IDF retaliation in the form of airstrikes and artillery barrages.
No casualties or damages were reported in Sderot, but Palestinian sources said that five Gazans were wounded in some 20 retaliatory strikes.
A Gazan organization by the name of Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis claimed responsibility the rocket fire in Israel. The group is affiliated with Salafi groups that identify with the ideology of ISIS, the Islamic State organization, and from time to time it attempts to fire rockets in a challenge of sorts to Hamas, the Islamist organization that governs the Gaza Strip.
Israel responded with airstrikes and tank fire. The IDF said the air force struck “a number” of Hamas targets, while Palestinian eyewitnesses reported that an Israeli tank fired six shells at a water storage facility.
Palestinian media reported that Israel had targeted sites affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another group armed with projectiles in the Gaza Strip. Rocket sirens sounded in Sderot and nearby communities on the Gaza border, at 2:25 P.M. Minutes later rocket debris was found in a street in Sderot.
Rocket sirens sounded in Sderot and nearby communities on the Gaza border, at 2:25 P.M. Minutes later rocket debris was found in a street in Sderot.
