Three rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel late Thursday night, the Israel Defense Forces said, as tensions in the region continued to heat up.
There were no direct injuries, but an infant suffered head injuries during a rush into a bomb shelter in Sderot.
Two of the rockets were shot down by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. A third landed in an unpopulated area.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
Rocket alert sirens sounded in Sderot, at Sapir College, in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, and in several nearby kibbutzim, including Ibim, Gevim and Nir Am.
The infant, 3-weeks old, was hurt when her mother fell while running into a shelter in Sderot. The newborn was listed in moderate condition at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva and the mother, 30, had light injuries, the Magen David Adom rescue service said.
The attack came hours after the Israeli Air Force carried out strikes on the southern Strip in response to cross-border fire earlier in the day, amid fears of an escalation of violence in Gaza and the West Bank following the release of a US peace plan that is seen as heavily favoring Israel.
Even before the release of the peace plan, forces in the south had been battling a resurgence of balloons with explosives or incendiary devices being launched from Gaza, which have continued to terrorize communities.
On Thursday morning, a bundle of balloons connected to an explosive device were found in the area of the Ashkelon Coastal Regional Council. There were no injuries.
Rocket sirens sounded in an Israeli town just north of the Gaza Strip on Thursday afternoon, sending hundreds of people rushing to bomb shelters.
The military said the alarms, which were heard in the community of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in the Hof Ashkelon region of southern Israel, were not caused by a rocket launch.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment on what had triggered the sirens.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
“No impact sites have yet been found and there are no physical casualties,” a Hof Ashkelon spokesperson said.
Earlier in the day, a balloon-borne explosive device detonated in the air over Hof Ashkelon, causing neither injury nor damage, the spokesperson said.
The sirens came less than 24 hours after Palestinian terrorists fired at least one mortar shell at southern Israel on Wednesday night, striking an open field and causing no injuries or damage, the military said.
In response Israeli aircraft attacked several sites in the Gaza Strip. The army said it hit “Hamas targets including a weapons manufacturing site and underground infrastructure.”
There were no immediate reports of Palestinian casualties.
The mortar attack triggered sirens in the community of Kibbutz Kissufim in the Eshkol region.
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