Gaza terror groups continued their heavy rocket fire in the late evening Thursday targeting the center of the country, including Ben-Gurion International Airport, and the southern cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod.
One rocket landed in the city of Ramle near the airport, home to both Jews and Arabs and the site of race riots that have also spread to other areas of the country.
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The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepts rockets over Ashkelon late Thursday
(Photo: Reuters)
Another rocket hit a building in the major southern city of Be'er Sheva on Thursday night, causing damage but apparently no injuries. A gas leak was detected as a result of the strike.
Hours earlier, the city was also targeted by heavy rocket fire, with one rocket landing close to a local school. No injuries were reported.
Ben-Gurion Airport said Thursday that flights would not be allowed to land there and were re-directed to Ramon Airport in the Arava Desert, near the southernmost city of Eilat.
International carriers have been canceling their flights to Israel because of the continuous rocket fire. After British Airways , Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Iberia and the U.S. airlines all cancelled, the Greek flag carrier Aegean Airlines also announced it would be suspending its flights to Israel due to the security situation.
Meanwhile, the IDF carried out more strikes on Gaza on Thursday evening, including one on what the military said was a command center of the internal security forces of Hamas, the terror group that rules Gaza.
Gaza border communities came under rocket fire throughout Thursday and in the evening hours. A home in Eshkol Regional Council was destroyed in a direct rocket strike early Thursday evening.
With the fighting in its fourth day, Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday authorized the military to call up thousands of reserve soldiers to bolster troops already deployed in artillery units, the Iron Dome missile defense batteries and in other branches of the military.
In a press briefing on Thursday evening, a military spokesperson said that in the first three days of fighting, at least 1,700 rockets were launched from Gaza at Israeli communities and that the IDF conducted raids on 750 terror targets in the Strip.
Meanwhile, the IDF confirmed Thursday evening that three rockets had been fired at the Western Galilee from Lebanese territory and had landed in the Mediterranean Sea, causing no injury or damage.
It appears that the rockets were fired by Palestinian militants in the region and not by Hezbollah, Israel's main enemy on its northern border.
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Palestinians demonstrate against Israel in Sidon in South Lebanon on Wednesday
(Photo: AFP)
Reports from Lebanon said that members of the local security forces apprehended those who fired the rockets in the city of Tyre in the south of the country.
First published: 23:52, 05.13.21