Israelis take cover in rocket shelter
Israelis take cover in rocket shelterCredit: Hadas Parush/Flash 90

A rocket fired from Egypt exploded in southern Israel's Gaza belt region Friday afternoon.

Residents of the area were forced into rocket shelters after sirens sounded at approximately 4:20 p.m. local time. No damage or injuries has been reported.

The IDF temporarily closed Route 12 as a "security precaution."

Unlike other recent rocket attacks, which have broken the relative calm since the truce signed between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza, this attack did not come from the Gaza Strip but from within Egyptian territory.

Although there has been no official claim of responsibility, the likely culprit is ISIS's Egyptian branch, known as "Sinai Province."

The terror group has been escalating its attacks against the Egyptian authorities, assassinating Egypt's chief prosecutor and carrying out a massive assault which left some 100 people dead this week.

The group has also in the past vowed to attack Israel, though it has largely been focused on fighting the Egyptian army.

But summing up the sentiments of residents of southern Israel, MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid) said that as far as they are concerned it didn't really matter where the rockets were fired from.

"The residents of the south aren't interested in where the (rocket) fire came from," said Yellin, himself a resident of the south.

Yellin accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of "simply doing nothing" claiming the PM did not have a political or military strategy to deal with the issue.

"So it's no surprise that rockets continue to explode over the residents of the Gaza Belt and southern Israel."

"I call on Netanyahu to fight terror just like he fights for the sake of gas," Yellin continued, in a stinging criticism of the PM's involvement in controversial measures to preserve a monopoly over Israel's natural gas reserves.