A Qassam rocket hit a wooden kibbutz building in the Eshkol regional council on Thursday. No injuries were reported, but the building was damaged.
The Ansar al-Sunnah Brigades, an al-Qaeda affiliated group in Gaza, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack.
At about 3 pm the 'Color Red' alarm was heard in one of the western Negev towns. A short time later, the rocket exploded in the kibbutz just a short distance from residential buildings.
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"We heard the alarm, a whistling sound and a bang," the kibbutz secretary said. "We had already gathered in a nearby office. Shelves fell, pictures were destroyed and there are shards of glass all over the place. There is a lot of damage. Luckily, it was just a storage space. We are prepared for these kinds of incidents, but we didn't think it would happen so quickly."
The head of the Eshkol Regional Council, Haim Yalin, said that only Wednesday they completed an emergency exercise.
"We are ready for this, but we must not get used to such a situation," he said. "I hope it will be the last Qassam to fall, and that there will be the kind of response that enables the residents of the area to sleep soundly at night. It was one of the few rockets since Operation Cast Lead
to cause damage."
Last month was relatively quiet. The last time a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip was February 12.
The rocket landed in an open area, hurting nobody and causing no damage.
However, incidents on the ground continued during this period. At the beginning of the month an IDF tank fired
at a group of Palestinians who approached the fence surrounding the Strip, killing one and wounding the others. Later, an explosive device and mortar were found in the vicinity.
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