Roadside bomb, Grad rocket disrupt calm in south
Explosive device set off against IDF troops patrolling fence along Gaza border after Grad lands in Hevel Yave region without setting off alarm
The Homefront Command on Saturday established a committee to investigate an apparent malfunction in the rocket alert system in Hevel Yavne Regional Council, after a Grad rocket exploded near a town in the area.
In another incident Saturday, an explosive device planted near the security fence along the Gaza border was detonated just as an IDF patrol vehicle was passing on Saturday afternoon. No injuries were reported and no damage was caused.
The Grad rocket reportedly struck the area of a town in Hevel Yavne around 8:00 pm Friday, and its remains were discovered and dismantled in an agricultural field by police sappers on Saturday morning. It constitutes the farthest-reaching rocket fired at Israel since the end of the IDF offensive in Gaza.
Army officials said the Grad was another attempt by Hamas to pressure Israel into approving an Egypt-brokered ceasefire in Gaza. "Hamas acts intentionally and always tries to add fuel to the fire with mortars, an occasional Qassam, and now a Grad," one official said.
The IDF struck two Hamas weaponry manufacturing facilities in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza on Friday evening. Palestinians reported six people were wounded in the attacks, which heavily damaged the manufacturing sites. Earlier on Friday afternoon the IDF also targeted weaponry smuggling tunnels on the Philadelphi corridor in southern Gaza.
The army said the airstrikes were a response to the Qassam rocket fired towards Israel on Friday morning.
