File image.
On February 1 afternoon, at least a single rocket was launched from the Palestinian Gaza Strip at Israel’s southern region.
Incoming rocket sirens sounded in the city of Sderot and the nearby settlements of Ibim and Nir Am. Moreover, footage showing Iron Dome interceptor missiles exploding in the air surfaced online.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the rocket was successfully intercepted by its “Aerial Defense Array,” referring to the Iron Dome system.
An Israeli woman in her 50s was reportedly lightly hurt after slipping while running to a bomb shelter in Sderot. She was taken by the Magen David Adom ambulance service to a nearby hospital for further treatment. The Sderot municipality also reported minor damage to one of the city’s roads as a result of shrapnel from the rocket interception. The municipality shared a photo showing what appears to be a a part of an Iranian-made Fadjr-1 107 mm rocket.
Click to see full-size image. Source: Sderot Municipality, via Twitter.
Early on in the day, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir ordered the Israel Prison Service (IPS) to shut down two bakeries inside prisons hosting Palestinians held on “terror” charges. The controversial far-right minister linked the rocket attack to his decision.
“The [rocket] fire from Gaza will not stop me from continuing to work to abolish the summer camp conditions of murderous terrorists. I give my full support to the IPS to go into the [prison] wings and restore order. I asked for an urgent cabinet meeting this evening to examine ways of responding to the launch of the rockets from Gaza,” Ben Gvir said in a statement following the rocket fire.
After the rocket attack, a photo showing three Fadjr-1 rockets with messages condemning the IPS crackdown on Palestinian prisoners was shared by Palestinian activists. The crackdown came as a response to prisoners celebrating a recent shooting attack in Jerusalem that left seven people dead.
Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
Last week, Palestinian fighters fired two salvos of rockets from Gaza at nearby Israeli settlements in response to an IDF operation in the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp that claimed the lives of ten people, including a woman. The rocket attacks provoked a series of strikes on military positions of the Hamas Movement, the de-facto ruler of the Palestinian enclave.
No group has claimed responsibility for the new rocket attack, yet. The IDF will likely hold Hamas responsible and respond by launching strikes on Gaza within a few hours.
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