Israel Air Force aircraft struck a terror cell preparing to launch
rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Friday, according to the IDF
Spokesman's Office.
The strike came after two rockets were fired
into southern Israel from Gaza earlier in the day, landing in the Eshkol
Regional Council area. More than 130 rockets have been fired into the
South from Gaza since Monday, but Thursday and Friday were relatively
quiet after an Egyptian-brokered informal ceasefire seemed to be largely holding. Four additional rockets landed in the Sdot Negev and Eshkol Regional Council areas following the IAF strike, causing no injuries or damage.
Hamas
officials said that one Palestinian was killed and two others were wounded
in Friday's IAF strike at al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. The Popular Resistance Committees, terrorists often involved in shooting rockets, said the man killed in the attack belonged to their group.Palestinian sources claim that this marked the ninth Palestinian death
from IAF strikes since hostilities began Monday.
Israel on Thursday lodged an official complaint with the United Nations about
the rocket fire into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
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.
Three rockets were fired into Israel on Thursday
night, one of which was intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket-defense
system. They marked the first such attacks since early Thursday morning
when seven missiles hit Israel, in
addition to one that was intercepted by the Iron Dome near Ashkelon.
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.”
Yaakov Katz and Reuters contributed to this report.