Palestinians launch rocket barrage at central Israel just before cease-fire

Iron Dome intercepts projectiles over Tel Aviv suburbs after rocket sirens sound in greater Tel Aviv area, Sharon region.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, HERB KEINON
Iron Dome battery 370 (photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Iron Dome battery 370
(photo credit: Ben Hartman)
Explosions were heard in the skies over greater Tel Aviv on Thursday morning as Palestinian rocket launchers fired a fresh barrage of projectiles at towns and suburbs in the Sharon region.
One rocket was intercepted over the greater Tel Aviv and Sharon district and one rocket fell in the area.
Rocket sirens were sounded in highly populated suburbs of Tel Aviv, including Kfar Sava, Ra'anana, Petah Tikva, Kiryat Ono, and Bnei Brak.
The latest salvo came just after terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched a trickle of rocket fire at southern Israel on Thursday morning ahead of a temporary cease-fire set to take effect at 10 a.m.
Four rockets fired from the Gaza Strip toward Beersheba exploded in open territory on Thursday morning.
Earlier in the morning the Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted two rockets over Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi. Three rockets also fell in open area in Kiryat Malachi, and the Eshkol and Ashkelon Coast regional councils on Thursday morning.
Israel on Wednesday accepted a UN proposal for a five-hour humanitarian pause in the fighting to allow for relief aid into Gaza, less than two days after it accepted a more comprehensive cease-fire proposal that was answered by continuous rocket attacks from Gaza.
Hamas followed suit and also agreed to the humanitarian pause in the fighting around midnight on Wednesday.
UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry turned to Maj.-Gen. Yoav “Poly” Mordechai – Israel’s coordinator of government activities in the territories – with the request. A UN spokesman said if Israel agreed, Serry would call on “groups in Gaza to respect the pause.”
The development came as Israel continued to delay a much discussed ground incursion into the Gaza Strip so it could gauge the direction intensive efforts in Cairo and elsewhere were taking to resuscitate the cease-fire plan Hamas rejected on Tuesday.


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