Terrorists in northern Gaza fired six mortar shells at Jewish communities in Israel's western Negev early Wednesday morning, several days after promising to stop attacking civilians.
Initial reports said the explosives had struck locations within the Eshkol Regional Council area, although at least one other report said the shells had landed within Gaza. No one was injured and no damage was reported.
The attacks came despite assurances from the Gazan Authority's ruling Hamas terrorist faction last Friday that it had no desire to continue rocket attacks into Israel, and that it had convened a council of terror groups in an effort to curb the firing on the Negev. The Islamic Jihad terrorist group had announced on Monday that it agreed to the ban.
The latest attacks aimed at Israeli civilians may reflect internal pressures in Hamas, which is suffering a financial crisis due to the three-year-old international ban on transferring funds to the terrorist authority, which Israel holds responsible for all activity in the territory over which Hamas has maintained a chokehold since winning a militia war against the rival Fatah faction in June 2007.
Successful lawsuits on behalf of terror victims have compelled the terror group to pay out millions of dollars in compensation, compounding the group's financial problems. That, plus difficulties with “importing” replacements for the ordnance fired over nearly a decade at Israel's southern communities, due to the blockade implemented by Jerusalem at the Gaza crossings and around the region's coastline, have further complicated its ability to wage war against the Jewish State.
In other security news, IDF troops arrested four wanted PA terror suspects overnight. Two were caught near Jericho, and the other two were captured in Samaria, in an area northwest of Ramallah.