The Israeli army said that a rocket fired from the besieged Gaza Strip landed in an open area in southern Israel on Monday morning, reporting no injuries or damages as a result of the incident.
Israeli news site Ynet said the projectile exploded in open territory in the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council.
The cross-border fire came after the Israeli army targeted the besieged coastal enclave with multiple airstrikes in two instances this month, which the army said came in response to rocket fire from Gaza that caused no injuries to Israelis.
On Feb. 9, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said that two Palestinians were killed and five were injured as a result of an airstrike on a smuggling tunnel between Egypt and Gaza, though an Israeli army spokesperson denied involvement in the incident.
Three days earlier, a series of Israeli airstrikes from morning until evening left three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip injured.
Meanwhile, last week, two rockets launched from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula hit an open area in southern Israel, according to the Israeli army.
The Gaza-based al-Mezan Center for Human Rights expressed concern earlier this month in response to Israeli airstrikes that Israel could be leading up to a wide-scale military offensive.
The rights group called on the international community to “act promptly against Israel’s military escalation, to fulfill their obligations to protect civilians, and ensure respect for the rules of international law,” stressing that “acting before a full-scale military bombardment is launched is crucial to ensuring the protection of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
Israeli officials have also accused Hamas, Gaza’s de facto leaders, of “preparing” for another war with Israel and have threatened retaliatory measures against the Gaza Strip as a whole, while Israeli authorities hold Hamas responsible for all attacks against Israeli targets coming from the Gaza Strip.
However, Hamas has not claimed responsibility for any rocket attacks since Israel’s devastating war in Gaza in 2014, and the movement has attempted to clamp down on armed activity by smaller political groups in the territory.
