Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

IDF intercepts rocket from northern Gaza

Hamas rocket fire has significantly decreased but has not been eliminated.

Erez Crossing
The Erez Crossing to the northern Gaza Strip, Jan. 4, 2024. Photo by Chaim Goldberg/Flash90.

After air-raid sirens sounded in Kibbutz Erez in southern Israel, the Israeli Air Force intercepted one rocket launch that crossed from the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces reported on Tuesday.

While Hamas rocket fire has significantly decreased since the early days of the war as the IDF has consistently and severely degraded the terror group’s capabilities, it has not been eliminated.

Terrorist forces in Gaza launched a rocket at the border community of Kerem Shalom on Nov. 21, triggering sirens in the kibbutz, located at the Gaza-Israel-Egypt border near the crossing of the same name.

The rocket was successfully intercepted, causing no injuries or damage, according to the IDF.

A rocket from Gaza set off sirens in Kibbutz Erez on Nov. 13, impacting in an open area. No injuries were reported. The community is located less than a mile from the Strip’s northern border and is the namesake of the Erez Crossing.

On Nov. 25, the Israeli military reported that Abd el-Halim Abu Hussein, the head of rocket operations for Hamas’s Western Jabalia battalion, was among several terrorists killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza city. He was responsible for numerous rocket and mortar attacks against Israeli civilians, as well as against Israeli forces in Gaza.

The strike also eliminated Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Zakout, one of the Hamas terrorists who carried out the massacre of 1,200 men, women and children in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

An American Jewish Committee spokesman told JNS that the group is “grateful for the severity with which the Justice Department is handling this case.”
NYPD said the investigation into the death of Albert Itzkowitz, 75, a former Hatzolah volunteer and kosher bakery owner, remains ongoing and that no arrests have been made.
“At a time when Jewish Americans are facing a deeply troubling rise in violence and harassment, it is critical to recognize organizations that have spent generations standing up to hate and defending the truth,” Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. said.
Rabbi Jason Rosner, of Congregation B’nai Emet, told JNS that “we are prepared to evacuate our Torahs if necessary.”
The PAC’s co-chairs stated that Ammar Campa-Najjar is “the only candidate campaigning on a progressive agenda in this race.”
“This settlement reaffirms a basic principle, which is that American law cannot tolerate taxpayer dollars flowing to a system that rewards terrorism,” Mark Goldfeder, CEO and director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, told JNS.