Hamas terrorists prepare to fire rockets from Gaza at southern Israel. (Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JWN and agencies)—Palestinian terrorists fired salvoes totaling 19 Grad artillery rockets at civilian targets in southern Israel over the past 24 hours. Miraculously there were no casualties.
Israel Air Force aircraft carried out a strike against the launching squad responsible for the latest barrage, killing four terrorists and wounding one.
Hamas claimed responsibility for some of the rocket fire, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of Palestinians in recent days. The IAF killed at least four Palestinian terrorists responsible for rocket attacks in the last 24 hours, two of whom were members of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group. Some Palestinian reports said a total of six have been killed.
Hamas’s armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, announced that it had fired three mortar shells at an IDF base in Zikim. The announcement marks a turnabout in the terrorist group’s previous low-profile position during recent rounds of violence along the Gaza border. Hamas had recently refrained from launching rockets and firing mortars, letting its proxy Palestinian terror groups do so.
On Monday, a terrorist cell operating from Sinai crossed into Israel and attacked a construction crew working on the security fence, killing a worker from Haifa, the father of four. An IDF rapid response unit quickly arrived at the scene and killed two of the terrorists in a gunfight. A third terrorist escaped.
Shortly after the Sinai border attack, an IAF aircraft targeted a motorbike in Gaza, killing two Islamic Jihad men who were part of a terror cell responsible for recent shooting attacks along the border.
An Islamic group calling themselves the Mujahideen Shura Council of Jerusalem released a statement Tuesday claiming responsibility for the Sinai attack.
