Israeli fighter jets struck Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after a Grad rocket fired from Gaza hit a house in the major Israeli city of Beersheba, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Gaza border.
Rocket alert sirens blared across Israeli communities near the border at 3:40 a.m., seconds before two projectiles breached Israeli airspace.
One rocket hit the house in Beersheba. A woman and her three children were rescued from the house suffering from shock and minor injuries.
One Israeli official said that it was "only by miracle" that the family escaped with their lives. The rocket strike caused extensive damage to the building and several neighboring homes.
He credited the mother for following Homefront Command orders to immediately seek shelter, saying that she saved her and her children's lives.
Two other people were treated for minor injuries caused as they were running for shelter, a Magen David Adom emergency services spokesman said.
A defense official later said the rocket that hit the home was packed with 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of explosives. The building may have to be condemned, he said.
The second rocket landed in the ocean, off the Israeli coast, the IDF said.
Following the attack, Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich canceled school for the day in the city. The Homefront Command barred residents in communities near the border from gathering in groups larger than 300 people outdoors and 500 people indoors.
'Hamas is responsible'
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said the military struck 20 terrorist targets, including underground infrastructure, Hamas bases, weapon and rocket mills, as well as an undersea terror tunnel.
"There are only two groups in Gaza that have Grad rockets: Hamas and Islamic Jihad," Manelis said.
"It doesn't matter who fired. Hamas, as the sovereign entity in Gaza, is responsible."
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit later released a video showing a Gaza terrorist being eliminated as he was preparing to fire a rocket at Israel.
Gaza's health ministry said one man was killed and four others were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza.
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad declared Wednesday that it was not their operatives who fired the rockets.
A Hamas statement denounced "the irresponsible attempt to derail the Egyptian efforts, including this rocket fire."
The statement was referring to long-running Egyptian attempts to broker a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in an effort to prevent tensions from escalating into a full-fledged war.
Egyptian General Intelligence Service head Maj. Gen. Abbas Kamel is expected to embark on a shuttle diplomacy mission between Jerusalem and Ramallah on Thursday and has already sent a team to Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held security consultations with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and the IDF's General Staff on Wednesday and called a Diplomatic-Security Cabinet meeting for the evening.
In the wake of the rocket attack, Lieberman ordered the closure of the Kerem Shalom cargo border crossing and the Erez pedestrian border crossing with Gaza. The fishing zone off Gaza's coast, usually 6 nautical miles, has been reduced to 3 miles.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, who is currently attending a defense conference in the United States, cut his visit short and was making his way back to Israel on Wednesday.
The rocket attack was the first in months and the first to hit an Israeli home since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
It came a day after Lieberman said that after weeks of escalating violence along the border, the time had come to deliver a "heavy blow" to Hamas.
Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon called on the U.N. Security Council to denounce the attack.
"The State of Israel received another reminder of Hamas terrorism as the organization fired rockets at Israel's south, one of them hitting a residential home. This was the act of heinous, criminal terrorists, who caused small children to run for their lives to a protected area in the middle of the night and suffer shock over the destruction of their home," he said.
