JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel in retaliatory airstrikes targeted what the military called “three terror sites” in Gaza.
The Saturday morning strikes came in response to rockets fired the previous evening from the Gaza Strip on southern Israeli communities. One rocket landed in Sderot, reportedly damaging a bus and a private home. Later that night a rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system over Ashkelon.
There reportedly were no injuries in either the bombings from Gaza or Israel’s reprisal.
A Palestinian Salafist group affiliated with the Islamic State, called the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, took responsibility for the rocket attacks.
Code red alarms sounded in southern Israel in advance of the rocket strikes, sending residents running for bomb shelters.
An Iron Dome battery had been moved to the Ashkelon area late last week after a defense situation assessment found that the recent upsurge in violence on the Temple Mount and in other areas of Jerusalem, as well as the rearrest of recovered Palestinian hunger striker Mohammed Allaan, could set off a new round of rocket attacks from Gaza.
The rocket that struck Sderot was the 11th rocket to hit Israeli territory since January.
At least two rockets fired from Gaza early Sunday morning failed to cross the border with Israel and landed in Gazan territory, according to reports.
