Residents of western Negev communities near the Gaza Strip had a tumultuous night late Thursday and into the early hours of Friday morning as terrorist factions continued to fire rockets at Israeli civilians. One rocket hit a home in Sderot. No one was wounded by that rocket, but Magen David Adom personnel treated three women for shock near the impact site.
Elsewhere in Sderot, a 52-year-old woman sustained minor injuries while running for shelter.
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The Iron Dome system intercepted six other rockets in Sderot airspace, and the IDF responded to the attacks with airstrikes on Hamas targets, including a military complex that manufactured rockets and rocket launchers and a site that manufactured concrete that Hamas uses to build underground infrastructure and attack tunnels.
Early Friday, IDF aircraft struck some of the organization's underground facilities.
Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Thursday
"The strike was a response to seven rockets that were launched at Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip tonight. Six of the rockets were intercepted by air defense soldiers," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.
"The IDF takes any terrorist activity against Israel seriously, and is willing and ready to take any action necessary against attempts to attack Israel's citizens or its sovereignty," the IDF statement continued.
"The Hamas terrorist organization is responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip and from it, and it will bear the ramifications of its terrorist activity against the citizens of Israel," the IDF said.
Shlomo Malka, whose home was hit by the rocket, told Israel Hayom that the rocket had wrecked his son's bedroom. At the time of the attack, his son was attending a birthday party.
"We didn't hear the Color Red alert," Malka said.
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Earlier Thursday, 42 fires were started in the western Negev by explosives-laden balloons released by terrorists in Gaza. The spokesperson for the Southern District of the Fire and Rescue Services said that firefighters, teams from the JNF and the Nature and Parks Authority, IDF soldiers, community security officers, and civilian volunteers had cooperated to extinguish a number of brush fires.
Most of the fires erupted in the Shaar Hanegev and Eshkol regional councils.
In light of the uptick in security tensions, Secretary General of the Moshavim Movement Amit Yifrach reached out to Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday to discuss the arson balloon attacks and agricultural terrorism being perpetrated against western Negev communities.
In a letter, Yifrach told Gantz that "Balloon terrorism has once again struck the residents of the western Negev. Over 200 fires have been caused by the arson balloons, seriously affecting the residents' lives and is posing a real danger to life and property."
On Thursday, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is identified with Hezbollah, reported that Qatar has expressed willingness to extend its financial grants to the Gaza Strip for another six months and promote initiatives already discussed as part of its efforts to mediate between Hamas and Israel.
The report said that Hamas had rejected the offer, emphasizing that it wanted to force Israel to implement all existing understandings immediately.
The Lebanese paper also said that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad had threatened a "powerful" response to Israel's warning that it might revive targeted killings of senior Hamas officials. The terrorist organizations said they would view any such killings as a "declaration of war" and retaliate by "setting Tel Aviv on fire with thousands of rockets."
