After Grad hits Beersheba, mayor wants Iron Dome deployed

Beersheba Mayor Ruvik Danilovich demanded on Tuesday that the Iron Dome missile defense system be deployed in his city after the latest Grad rocket fell on its outskirts Monday night.

"It is the nation's duty to defend its citizens, and the [Iron Dome] system gives residents a sense of security and peace of mind," Danilovich told a senior IDF officer on Tuesday.

In response to the Grad rocket, the Israel Air Force attacked four strategic targets on Tuesday. Hamas reported that a command center, ammunition bunker and several training facilities were destroyed. The IDF also struck a terror cell as it was preparing to fire mortars into Israel.

Palestinian reports claimed one person killed from the air strikes and two critically wounded, among them a 14-year-old who was hit during the bombing of a smuggling tunnel near the Gaza-Egypt border. Hamas claims it is making every effort to prevent rocket fire from Gaza to Israel, and that the Islamic Jihad group is behind the rocket firings. Also on Tuesday, a second Palestinian was killed from soldier fire as the Palestinian approached a no-go area near the Gaza border.

Residents of a tent camp in Beersheba, which includes students and homeless living there as part of a social justice protest, said they would not dismantle their tents in the face of a potential uptick in violence. "We have no defense," Liz Nachum, a single mother of four, said, "but we have nowhere to go, so we won't leave."