A rocket attack from Gaza left an Israeli man moderately-to-severely
injured on Saturday morning, in the Sderot area. Two other residents
suffered shock in the Palestinian attack, and a factory sustained some
damage.
The injured man, approximately 50 years old was rushed
to Barzilai Medical Center after being struck by shrapnel in the neck
and stomach. The man was fully conscious.
Palestinians have fired twenty rockets from Gaza into southern Israel since midnight on Friday, police said. Fifteen of those landed in the Lachish region, and five in the Negev. The Iron Dome
rocket defense system intercepted five of the rockets.
In
light of the recent wave of rockets,
the IDF instructed residents in the area to stay within 15 seconds of protected
spaces. In a conversation with Army Radio, Sderot Mayor David Buskila
called on the government to return quiet to the region.
The violence all but erases diplomatic progress made in the form of an informal ceasefire brokered by Egypt on June 20, which brought two days of relative quiet to southern Israel.
Earlier
Saturday morning, the Israel Air Force struck three Palestinian terror
bases in the Gaza Strip in response to continued Palestinians rocket
firing into Israel. Palestinian media reported that between 17 and 21
people were wounded in the strike - the third of its kind since Friday,
which according to the reports have also resulted in the death of at
least one terrorist.
The IDF Spokesman's Unit stated that
aircraft registered direct hits on the three targets - two of which are
in northern Gaza and one of which is in the South.
Just prior to the attack, Palestinians fired a rocket into Israel, which landed in the Eshkol Regional Council area, failing to cause damage or injury.
Late
Friday, the IAF initiated two forays into the coastal territory in
response to rocket fire. The first strike targeted a terror cell
preparing to launch a rocket at Israel, killing one member of a pro
al-Qaida fringe Salafist Islamist group and wounding two others at the
al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Palestinians had originally
reported that the man was a member of the Popular Resistance Committees,
a terrorist group that is often involved in rocket shooting into
Israel.
Following the IAF strike on the cell, terrorists fired
five rockets into Israel over the span of two hours on Friday night. No
injuries or damage were reported in the attacks. Three rockets landed in
the Eshkol Regional Council area and another landed in the Sdot Hegev
Regional Council area. The fifth rocket, fired at the Ashkelon Coast
Council area, prompted the IAF's second strike of the night in Gaza.
Immediately
after the rocket was launched, IAF aircraft targeted the terror cell
responsible for the launch, recording a direct hit. Palestinian sources
said the strike hit a motorcycle in northern Gaza, wounding four
Palestinians, one of whom was in serious condition. The man later
succumbed to his wounds, marking the tenth Palestinian death from IAF
strikes since hostilities began Monday, according to Palestinian
sources. Minutes later a sixth rocket hit southern Israel, again in the
Ashkelon Coast Regional Council area.
Some 150 rockets have
been fired into the South from Gaza since Monday, prompting Israel on
Thursday to lodge an official complaint with the United Nations.
Ambassador
to the UN Ron Prosor complained to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
that “the lives of about a million Israelis are paralyzed” by the
projectiles.
Prosor stated that “as long as Israel’s southern communities will not know quiet, it will not be quiet in Gaza.”
He
added that Israel fully cooperates with the UN, allowing civilian
material and humanitarian aid into Gaza, “and in exchange weapons
continue to flow into the Strip and rockets are fired into Israel."