Grad rocket fired from Gaza lands in parking lot in Netivot

Despite "informal cease-fire," rocket falls in heart of southern town lightly injuring man, causing 11 to suffer shock; attack comes after Homefront Command announces schools to reopen in South after 3-day closure.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Rockets from Gaza 370(r) (photo credit: Nikola Solic / Reuters)
Rockets from Gaza 370(r)
(photo credit: Nikola Solic / Reuters)
Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a Grad rocket into southern Israel on Tuesday night which fell into the heart of the town of Netivot, lightly injuring one man and causing 11 other local residents to suffer shock.
Police said that the rocket fell in a parking lot. A Police bomb squad was on the scene dealing with the attack and emergency services were on site to assist residents suffering from shock. An approximately 40-year-old man suffered injuries to his hand caused by glass shards.
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The attacks came despite reports that an "informal cease-fire" had been reached between Israel and terror organizations in Gaza late on Monday night.
Earlier on Tuesday evening two rockets landed in the Ashkelon Coast Regional Council, marking the first such attacks since midday. Previously, Palestinian terrorists fired five mortar shells and two rockets at southern Israel just before noon. No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.
School was scheduled to be back in session in the South on Wednesday after rocket attacks from Gaza kept students at home for the past three days.
The Home Front Command made the decision to send children back to school after consulting with the heads of local authorities in Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon.
Schools had been cancelled in all towns and cities located between 7 km to 40 km from the Gaza Strip. The decision applied to the cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Gadera, Rahat, Yavneh, Lakiyeh, and the Gan Yavneh Regional Council.
More than 200 rockets have been fired from Gaza into southern Israel during hostilities which began on Friday when the IDF killed two Islamic Jihad terrorists that Israel charged were plotting a cross-border terror attack from Sinai.
Rocket ranges from Gaza
Rocket ranges from Gaza
The Israel Air Force responded to rocket attacks throughout the period of escalation, killing 26 Palestinians in air strikes, 22 of whom were armed terrorists.
Palestinian media reported on Tuesday afternoon that the IDF shot and injured three Palestinians that approached the Gaza security fence during a funeral procession for two terrorists that were killed in an IAF strike a day earlier. The funeral was for Islamic Jihad members Bassam al-Ejla and Mohammed Daher.
The IDF said that some fifty Palestinians came close to the security fence, and that they fired in order to distance them.
An Egyptian security official told Reuters on Tuesday that both sides had "agreed to end the current operations," with Israel giving an unusual undertaking to "stop assassinations," and an overall agreement "to begin a comprehensive and mutual calm."
"There is an understanding," Homeland Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i told Army Radio Tuesday morning. "At the moment the direction is toward calm and it appears, unless there are last minute developments, that this round is now behind us."
Also Tuesday morning, an Islamic Jihad spokesman said the group would respect the quiet as long as Israel stopped assassinations of terrorist leaders, saying it would respond if more assassinations take place.