Just six hours after four Qassam rockets were fired
at the western Negev Wednesday, an explosion rocked Gaza City, causing no casualties, medics said, amid conflicting accounts over the cause of the blast.
Palestinian medics and residents said an Israeli missile was fired at a car but missed its target.
Palestinian security officials said the explosion may have been detonated by terrorists on a training exercise.
Witnesses said the rocket was fired from a helicopter in the central part of the city toward a vehicle traveling in the Tel el-Hawa neighborhood; they reported of a man fleeing the scene shortly afterwards.
Several Palestinian government buildings and security command centers are located in the neighborhood.
The IDF later denied carring out an attack in Gaza.
'I heard a blast and flew off the bed'
The Qassams were launched just before 6 a.m.; one rocket directly hit a Sderot home located a short distance from Defense Minister Amir Peretz's house. The rocket caused damage to one of the home's exterior walls. The family was inside the house during the strike but was unharmed.
Another rocket struck the roof of a house in Sderot and landed in the yard; a third rocket landed in another western Negev community, while the fourth landed in an open field.
“Luckily the rocket struck the concrete part of the roof, which slowed it down a bit,” Sderot homeowner Moti Ashkenazi said.
Ashkenazi, who was alone in his house during the attack, added that “I heard a blast and flew off the bed; part of the ceiling landed on me. A big miracle took place here because shrapnel from the rocket hit the gas tanks inside the house. I am still trying to fathom what happened to us this morning.
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