Two foreign workers died on Tuesday when a rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip smashed into the Eshkol region in the Western Negev.
Magen David Adom emergency medical personnel were compelled to declare the deaths of two men, both in their 30s, on the scene and treated another person for serious injuries.
Shortly thereafter, rocket alert sirens blared throughout Israel’s central region, including in Rishon Letzion and Tel Aviv. There were no reports of injuries, MDA said.
Overnight Monday, the IDF carried out a targeted killing of a member of the Hamas politburo, “Economy Minister” Jawad Abu Shamala, in an airstrike in Gaza.
Abu Shamala managed the finances of the organization and earmarked the funds for financing and directing terrorism both inside and outside the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
He previously held security positions in the terrorist organization and led several operations aimed at harming citizens of the State of Israel, the army added.
An Israel Air Force strike also killed Zakaria Abu Muammar, a senior member of the Hamas political bureau who headed the terrorist group’s National Relations Office.
“Abu Muammar was known to be close to [Hamas leader in Gaza] Yahya Sinwar and, as part of his position, worked to incite and act against the sovereignty of the State of Israel and endanger its residents,” the IDF noted.
Hamas threatened on Tuesday to unleash a massive barrage of rockets on Ashkelon, just north of the Gaza Strip.
“In response to the enemy’s crime of displacing our people and forcing them to flee their homes in several areas of the Gaza Strip, we give the residents of the occupied city of Ashkelon a deadline to leave before 5 p.m.,” said a Hamas spokesman.
Also on Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces troops killed four terrorists on the nearby Zikim Beach.
The Israel Air Force continued to pound Hamas targets in the Strip as the war sparked by the Palestinian terrorist group’s brutal Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state entered its fourth day.
The military said it struck the shaft of a tunnel and other assets Hamas used to penetrate Israeli territory on Saturday and kill at least 900 Israeli men, women and children.
Air force fighter jets also struck a mosque containing a Hamas operations and command center used to coordinate this weekend’s Iran-backed attack. The IAF also carried out “widespread” attacks on weapons depots and other terrorist infrastructure.
More than 200 sites were targeted in Gaza overnight Monday, according to the military, including at least one Palestinian Islamic Jihad asset.
Army Radio reported on Tuesday that the IDF is set to inform more than a hundred Israeli families that their loved ones are being held hostage in the Strip.
Hamas has claimed it captured 163 Israelis and took them to Gaza during Saturday’s terrorist attack.
