Sirens sounded in southern Israel Friday morning, merely two hours after the 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire agreed to by Israel and Hamas came into effect, collapsing shortly thereafter. After the cease-fire was obliterated and reports emerged that an Israeli soldier may have been kidnapped, heavy barrages of rockets pounded the south. On Thursday, Israel and Hamas agreed to hold their fire for 72 hours starting at 8 a.m. Friday. Ahead of the cease-fire, Gaza terrorists barraged Israeli communities, firing rockets at the kibbutzim of Nahal Oz and Kissufim at 5 a.m., at the town of Ofakim around 6:30 a.m., and at the greater Ashdod area at 7:40 a.m. Another rocket was fired at the Eshkol Regional Council around 8 a.m. Twenty rockets were fired from Gaza Strip at Israel over Thursday night. A man in his 30s sustained serious shrapnel wounds Thursday afternoon after a Grad rocket landed in a residential neighborhood in the southern town of Kiryat Gat. A police officer and another civilian who rushed to the man's aid were lightly wounded as well. All three were taken to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for treatment. Sixteen other people suffered shock, and heavy damage was caused to cars and homes in the area. According to police and Magen David Adom emergency services, the man -- a foreign national -- was observing the street from the third-story window of a nearby building. A siren sounded in the greater Tel Aviv area shortly before the rocket hit Kiryat Gat. The Iron Dome rocket interception system intercepted a rocket fired at Tel Aviv. The projectile's remnants fell in the city's popular Yarkon Park, causing some public panic. "My husband and two children were at an end-of-year party my son's preschool insisting on having in the park when the siren sounded. Twenty toddlers, their parents and the teachers squeezed into the nearby bathroom, but they didn't wait the required 10 minutes and when they came out parts of the rocket fell just a few feet from them," Shanny Shadmi told Israel Hayom. "If I've learned anything from this is that you have to follow the orders and wait," she said, referring to the Homefront Command's safety directives that people should wait inside shelters 10 minutes before going outside, to avoid shrapnel injuries. "It's a miracle," she said. "This could have ended much worse."
A rocket fired at the Eshkol Regional Council at 10 a.m. exploded on the Gazan side of the Israel-Gaza Strip border. Rockets were again fired, this time at Kerem Shalom, at 10:50 a.m., causing no injuries or damage.
Humanitarian lull derailed by rocket fire
Terrorist fire ends 72-hour truce agreed to by Israel, Hamas shortly after it starts • South comes under fire before lull • Man seriously wounded Thursday by Grad fire on Kiryat Gat • Remnants of rocket intercepted over Tel Aviv land in popular park.
Load more...