JERUSALEM (JTA) — Following a rocket strike from Gaza on the western Negev that injured one, Israel’s Air Force struck three terrorism-linked sites in Gaza.
The airstrikes early Thursday morning hit a weapons manufacturing and storage site in the central Gaza Strip and two terrorism hubs in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces. They followed a barrage of five rockets fired on southern Israel Wednesday evening, the IDF said.
The wounded man was airlifted to a hospital in Beersheba. A home in a kibbutz also was damaged. Residents of southern Israel were told to enter bomb shelters on Wednesday night.
"Escalation is only a matter of time. The threat in the area is constant and growing," read a statement issued Thursday by several southern Israeli regional councils. "We hope that the government will know how to relate to this reality before formulating policy for the southern line of conflict for 2011. The government must realize that this will be an active line of conflict for the foreseeable future."
About 200 rockets fired from Gaza have landed in Israel since the beginning of 2010, the IDF said.
