Residents of the southern city of Ashkelon are protesting following Kassam rocket attacks on the city. As Gaza-based terrorists continue efforts to manufacture a longer-range Kassam rocket, three of the missiles struck Ashkelon, resulting in damage but without physical injury. A number of people were treated in the city’s Barzalai Hospital for hysteria.
--The head of the left-wing Meretz-Yahad opposition party, Dr. Yossi Beilin, called on the government to accept the hudna ceasefire offer made by Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah. Officials in the Prime Minister’s Office stated that only after terrorists release IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit, who has been in captivity since 25 June, would the military cease its counter-terrorism offensive in Gaza.