Israel conducted airstrikes on the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday night as rocket fire targeting Israeli communities and cities in the south of the country continued throughout the evening.
According to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, a rocket launching squad affiliated with the Islamic Jihad was hit before they were able to fire off their load, wounding four.
The Homefront Command has called off school on Monday for the southern communities of Sderot and Netivot as well as neighboring areas after the municipality of Ashkelon also announced it would keep its schools closed.
Rockets from Gaza target the city of Sderot
(Yarden Avitan)
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for earlier rocket barrages against the cities of Ashkelon and Sderot and border area communities.
According to Palestinian sources, Egypt and the UN are attempting to broker a ceasefire that will return calm to the region, but the extreme faction has yet to agree.
In some communities near the Gaza border, residents claimed they were not surprised by the intense rocket fire after an earlier incident near the border fence when a militant from Gaza was killed by troops as he was laying an explosive device that was to detonate against Israeli forces.
After he was killed, the military removed his body from the scene with a bulldozer, which raised the ire of the Palestinians who claimed his body had been abused.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett backed the IDF seizure of the body by the troops. “I am sick of the hypocritical left-wing criticism of the 'inhumanity' of using a bulldozer to bring us the body of a terrorist who tried to murder (!) Israelis," Bennett wrote on Twitter.
"Hamas is holding the bodies of [fallen soldiers] Hadar Goldin and Oron [Shaul]," he said. "I back the IDF that killed the terrorists and collected the body. This is how we should and will act."
First published: 23:09, 02.23.20