Hamas fire anti-aircraft missile at IAF jets; miss target
Arab media reports Egypt attempting to broker ceasefire, sends warning from Israel to Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Hamas' military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has fired an anti-aircraft missile at an IAF fighter jet flying above the Gaza Strip. The missile failed to hit its target. Meanwhile, reports indicate Egypt is working to broker a ceasefire agreement.
The reports came as rockets rained down on Israel, with some reaching central Israel communities. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have taken responsibility for the attacks. Meanwhile, Iron Dome missile defense system has intercepted a number of rockets, and IAF aircraft have attacked over 50 Gaza targets.
The Egyptian authorities have reportedly sent Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza a message from Israel, warning them Israel's will respond with more force should rocket fire continue, Al Hayat reported.
A senior Palestinian source spoke with the paper and said Egyptian intelligences officials spoke with Musa Abu Marzuq, Hamas' officials in Cairo and Islamic Jihad Deputy Secretary-General Ziad Nahla, and told them that "Israel would hit Gaza hard fi the two movements refuse to accept calm."
A spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad said "our activity will expand in accordance with the expansion of Israeli aggression."
The Islamic Jihad, the second most prominent terror group in Gaza Strip after Hamas, has taken responsibility for at least 60 of the rockets fire at Israel.
he surge in violence has raged since the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli youths last month in the occupied West Bank and a Palestinian teen last week. Israel has arrested six Jewish suspects over the latter case.
Air raid sirens wailed as far north as the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Monday night. Israeli police said those were false alarms but the military said rockets had triggered alerts as far as 80 km (50 miles) away, the farthest of the latest crisis.
Two Israelis were wounded in Monday's rocket strikes.
Hamas claimed responsibility for firing rockets at Israel on Monday for the first time since a 2012 war with Israel that ended in an Egyptian-brokered truce.
The group's death toll on Monday had also been the highest Hamas suffered since the 2012 fighting.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of committing a "grave escalation" in violence and threatened to retaliate, saying Israel would "pay the price."
Roi Kais, Elior Levy, Matan Tzuri and Reuters contributed to this report
