For the first since the end of the IDF’s Pillar of Defense counterterrorism operation, Gaza-based terrorists opened fire on Friday afternoon towards the Shaar Hanegev region in southern Israel.
No one was hurt but a military vehicle belonging to a commander of the IDF’s Gaza Division sustained damage.
While Friday’s incident was the first time since November that shots were fired from Gaza towards Israel, it marks the second time in less than a week that Gaza terrorists have violated the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement with Israel that was reached at the end of Operation Pillar of Defense.
On Tuesday morning, Gaza terrorists fired rockets towards southern Israel. One rocket hit the city of Ashkelon, but did not cause injury. A second rocket apparently hit an open field near the city.
Residents said they had no warning of the impending strike.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The rocket fired was an upgraded M-75.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, sent an urgent letter to the UN Security Council and to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday night, hours after the rockets were fired, asking that they condemn the incident.
"Israel considers Hamas as being responsible for all attacks coming from Gaza,” Prosor wrote. "No country would allow to play Russian roulette with the lives of its citizens. You must condemn this blatant violation of the ceasefire, which could lead to escalation.”
(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)