Gazan terrorists fire rocket at Israel, as IDF ground op presses on

Palestinian terrorists in the central Gaza Strip on Friday fired a rocket at the Israeli border community of Kibbutz Be’eri.

The Israel Defense Forces launched an interceptor missile and was investigating the incident. No injuries were associated with the attack.

Air-raid sirens had not sounded in Be’eri, which was devastated during the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, in almost a year.

In response, the IDF issued an evacuation order for Palestinian civilians in Gaza’s Bureij area.

“Terror organizations are once again firing rockets from this area that has received warnings several times in the past,” Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, posted to X. “For your own safety, move immediately to the humanitarian zone,” he said.

On Thursday, after air-raid sirens were activated in Holit at 11:57 a.m., the Israeli Air Force intercepted a projectile fired from the southern Gaza Strip, the military said.

Holit is a kibbutz located in the Hevel Shalom region of southwestern Israel. It falls under the jurisdiction of the Eshkol Regional Council.

Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets at Israel just as the clock struck midnight on Tuesday night, marking the new year.

Israeli air defenses intercepted one of the rockets, with the other hitting an open field, the Israel Defense Forces said. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which caused no injuries or damage.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force struck staging grounds for terrorists along with Hamas command and control centers across the Palestinian enclave over the previous 24 hours, the IDF said.

“Dozens of Hamas terrorists operated from these compounds, planning and executing attacks against IDF forces and citizens of the State of Israel,” added the military.

“Some of the terrorist complexes that were attacked were established in places previously used as schools. This is another example of Hamas’s cynical and systematic use of civilians in the Gaza Strip for terrorist purposes,” the IDF continued.

The military stressed that several steps were taken to reduce the chance of harming civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.

The IDF also noted that Nahal Brigade troops were continuing to conduct raids in northern Gaza’s Beit Hanun area, during which armed terrorist squads were eliminated and weapons, including rocket launchers, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and explosives, were located and destroyed.