Residents of the Gush Dan area were awakened at 2:48 a.m. Thursday morning by a siren which sounded in the region.

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit confirmed that a siren was heard in the southern Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Azor, Holon and Bat Yam areas.

Following an investigation, it added that “the siren appears to have been a false alarm. The incident will be examined."

The false alarm in the dead of night came amid concerns that the terrorist organizations in Gaza would try to carry out an attack following Israel's destruction of a terror tunnel leading into Israel earlier this week.

On Wednesday, a senior IDF official said that the security establishment is maintaining a high degree of preparedness and alertness.

“If the Islamic Jihad movement carries out any act of retaliation, whether in the form of rocket fire at Israel from Gaza, in a terrorist attack in Judea or Samaria, or in another form, the IDF will respond with great force,” said the official.

"We are prepared for every scenario and know that Iran, which is behind Islamic Jihad and its headquarters in Syria, can give an order which would change the situation, and could even cause the collapse of the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah. So our assessments and level of readiness are high," he added.