The IDF Tuesday night retaliated for the late afternoon rocket attacks on Sderot and bombed smuggling tunnels at the Gaza-Egypt border. The aerial response followed by less than five hours two short-range (Kassam) rocket attacks on Sderot, one of which heavily damaged a house and lightly wounded one person. Several others were treated for shock.
Air Force planes attacked two weapon production sites in Gaza City and four smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border. Arab sources reported that four people were wounded.
Despite the ongoing rocket fire, Israel continues to transfer humanitarian aid on an almost daily basis, and 106 trucks carrying goods moved into Gaza on Tuesday. In addition, Israel transferred 460,000 liters of fuel and 350 tons natural gas.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin said that Hamas is using smuggling tunnels to re-stock the arsenal that was depleted in Operation Cast Lead. He told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee that Hamas is interested in maintaining quiet for the time being while it stocks up on more weapons.
Since shortly after the three-week Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign that ended in mid-January, the government has maintained a policy of tit-for-tat retaliation after virtual every mortar shelling or rocket attack.
Tuesday’s rocket attacks may have been a response by Hamas to a new government formed by Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has given up on efforts to reach a unity agreement with the rival Hamas party.
Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, and Noam Shalit, father of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, were in Sderot at the time of the rocket explosions. Neither of them was injured.