Israel vowed to retaliate for rocket attacks against Beersheba and Ashkelon on
Wednesday as Hamas evacuated most of its manned positions throughout the Gaza
Strip in anticipation of IDF air strikes.
At 5:30 Wednesday morning the
first Grad-model Katyusha rocket slammed into Beersheba for the first time in
almost a month, lightly wounding one person.
RELATED:9 Palestinians killed in IDF strikes on GazaHamas digging ‘terror tunnels’ along border with IsraelSeveral hours later, another
rocket hit the Negev city.
Yet another rocket landed south of Ashkelon on
Wednesday, a day after a rocket fell near Ashdod.
Authorities announced
that schools would be closed in Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon on Thursday as a
result of the security situation.
Also Wednesday, seven mortar shells
containing white phosphorous hit the Eshkol region, followed shortly after by
three more near a kibbutz in the Sha’ar Hanegev region. The IAF later destroyed
the launcher that was used to fire the rocket into Ashdod.
The Al-Quds
Brigades of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the missile fire, which
came after Israel killed four terror operatives in a missile strike on Tuesday
night. The four were behind the firing of two Katyusha rockets into Beersheba in
late February, the IDF said.
Fearing a further escalation, the IDF Home
Front Command ordered residents in Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod to stay close
to their homes and near bomb shelters, out of concern that additional rockets
will be fired in the coming days from the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF will
continue to act to protect Israeli citizens and will take preemptive action
along the Gaza border,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. “There will be highs
and lows; not everything will end tomorrow, but we are determined to restore
quiet and security to the South.”
Meanwhile, police in the South
increased the number of officers and patrol cars on the streets, in response to
the threat of further rockets and shells from Gaza.
On Wednesday, the
IDF’s Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration coordinated the transfer of
an 8-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip to Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot
after he was injured in an Israeli mortar attack on Tuesday.
The boy was
injured after IDF troops fired mortar shells into an open field in northern Gaza
and accidentally hit a number of civilians nearby, killing four members of a
family and wounding several others, including the boy, who was transferred
Wednesday to Israel for medical treatment.
Yaakov Lappin contributed to
this report.