Israeli residents quickly scrambled to bomb shelters before dawn on Sunday morning, when “Red Alert” sirens meant to warn of incoming missiles rang out in Israeli cities near the Gaza Strip. Residents were later informed that the sirens were a false alarm.
Sirens went off in the coastal city of Ashkelon, as well as in the smaller city of Sderot, and the Eshkol Regional Council, Shaar Hanegev Regional Council and Sdot Hanegev Regional Council at approximately 3 a.m.
On Saturday, a rocket fired from Gaza directly struck a home in the Israeli town of Shaar HaNegev. The missile failed to detonate, and no one inside the home was injured.
Following the alarms, the Israel Defense Forces issued a statement confirming that no additional missiles had been fired into Israel.
Sunday, a bomb attached to a flag detonated as Israeli soldiers were removing the flag from the Gaza border fence, injuring four soldiers, two seriously. In response to the missile and the explosion, Israel struck 18 targets in Gaza.