Terrorists in the Gaza region of the Palestinian Authority launched at least two rockets at the Negev city of Sderot Tuesday morning. Two factories were hit, but there were no direct injuries in the attacks.
One female factory employee was injured when she hit her head scrambling to reach a secure room after hearing the Color Red alert. Several other Sderot residents were treated for the effects of psychological shock.
The PRC vowed to continue firing rockets at Jewish targets.
The early morning rocket attack apparently targeted the city's industrial zone, with one rocket crashing into the warehouse of a kitchen manufacturer. The second projectile slammed into the parking lot of another factory, damaging vehicles and other property.
The multi-factional Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and Gaza's al-Mujahideen Brigades, an Islamist front group affiliated with Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization, claimed responsibility for the attack. The PA's Maan news agency publicized a statement by the PRC calling the Kassam attack a "response to the assassination of Abu Sa'ad, one of [our] senior members, who was assassinated yesterday by the IDF in Beit Lahiyeh [in northern Gaza]."
Abu Sa'ad was killed in an IDF airstrike in Gaza on Monday, just hours after a PA suicide bomber blew himself up in the city of Dimona. One woman was killed in that attack, while her husband is listed in critical condition. A second bomber was shot dead by police.
The PRC vowed to continue firing rockets at Jewish targets. Enemy forces fired at least four rockets towards Sderot and environs on Monday.
Nine Specific Terror Alerts
Nine specific warnings of planned terrorist attacks and at least 50 general security alerts have been issued by the General Security Service (GSS) and the IDF since the Dimona suicide bombing.
Increased checkpoints on the roads, patrols and police on the streets are indicating the raised alert status around the country. In particular, IDF forces, police and Border Guards have been alerted for infiltrations into southern Israel following the Hamas destruction of 200 meters of the border fence between Gaza and Egypt two weeks ago. Hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents, including many terrorists, have flooded into the Sinai Peninsula, from which illegal passage into Israel is not uncommon.
In a related law enforcement operation on Tuesday, Border Guards arrested 236 Palestinian Authority Arabs who
Border Guards arrested 236 Palestinian Authority Arabs.were present illegally in pre-1967 areas of Israel. Three Israelis who employed some of the men and three suspects who were accused of transporting the illegals from the PA were held for questioning. Three Islamic Jihad terrorists were apprehended in a separate operation. They were captured by IDF forces during a counter-terrorism sweep near the PA-controlled Samaria city of Tulkarm.
Other Israeli counter-terrorism activity overnight ended in the probable killing of two Hamas terrorists from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. They were hit by IDF fire overnight, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Office. The IDF confirmed that forces were carrying out operations near Rafiah at the time, while PA sources said both terrorists were killed. Rafiah is the city straddling the Gaza-Egypt border in which the separation fence was breached by PA forces.