A terrorist was killed Wednesday night in an IAF strike in Gaza, according to Gaza-based media sources. The strike was apparently targeting a group involved in firing rockets at southern Israel earlier in the evening.
Initial reports say the dead terrorist was a member of Islamic Jidad.
Earlier in the evening, at least seven rockets were fired from Gaza at the Eshkol Regional Council on Wednesday evening. Warning sirens were reportedly activated during the launch. Moments earlier, a Kassam rocket fell in an open field north of Gaza. No injuries or damage were reported
Gaza terrorists fired two rockets at Ashkelon on Wednesday night. The rockets hit an uninhabited area near Ofakim and did not cause injury or damage.
Simultaneously, air raid sirens were also heard in the Beersheba region.
On Wednesday morning the Israeli Air Force targeted and hit two terrorists in separate locations in northern Gaza who were attempting to fire rockets into southern Israel despite a purported Hamas-led ceasefire adopted by Gaza's panapoly of terror groups.
In the late afternoon on Wednesday, two mortar shells fired from Gaza exploded in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries were reported, but light damage was caused.
The mortar fire came after the IDF confirmed that a member of the terrorist group Islamic Jihad was killed in a car explosion in the Gaza Strip as a result of an IAF strike. An IDF statement said the terrorist targeted in Rafiah was involved in weapons smuggling and militant operations in Egypt's Sinai from where gunmen snuck into Israel killing eight last week. Israel Radio reported the terrorist killed in the strike was responsible for funding the Eilat attacks.
The Palestinian Authority's semi-official news agency Ma'an said that the man killed was Ismail al-Asmar, a field commander in the Al-Quds Brigade, the Islamic Jihad's military wing. A spokesman for a medical service run by Hamas said two other people were wounded after the car was targeted by IAF aircraft.
"Israel will pay a heavy price for this crime," a statement by the Al-Quds Brigade said.