The Home Front Command lifted security restrictions on Gaza border communities on Thursday after a night without rocket fire from Gaza.
The decision was made by the Israel Defense Forces and Israel’s Security Cabinet.
Following a rocket attack that resulted in a direct hit by a rocket on a house in Beersheva early Wednesday, the army had canceled school and restricted gatherings of more than 300 people in open areas and 500 people in closed spaces in the region.
When the Red Alert emergency warning system sounded at 3:39 am.. on Wednesday morning, 39-year-old single mother Miri Tamano roused her sons—aged 9, 10 and 12—and rushed them to the house’s bomb shelter. As soon as they closed the door, they heard a massive explosion. Police and firefighters were called to the scene, where they extracted the shocked family and neutralized any fire risks.
Though the family emerged unscathed, they lost almost all of their possessions, and their home was condemned as a collapse risk. The explosion was so severe that it also caused the balcony of the neighbor’s home to fall down.
A Home Front Command investigation estimated the rocket at 20 kilograms (44 pounds) and said it managed to penetrate three layers of concrete.
The IDF retaliated by hitting 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad military targets, including terror tunnels, military bases and weapons-manufacturing facilities.
