Mortar fire from Gaza (archives)
Photo: AFP
2 Gaza mortars fired towards Negev region
After two weeks of relative calm on southern border, terror groups attack Israel for third day in a row; one mortar lands in open Negev area, the other in Palestinian territory
Western Negev attacked for third consecutive day: Two mortars were fired from northern Gaza Friday afternoon towards Israel's western Negev region. There were no reports of injury or damage.
One of the shells landed in an open area within Sdot Negev Regional Council limits, while the other landed in Palestinian territory, near the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
The Salah a-Din Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed responsibility attacks, claiming it had fired a total of five mortars towards Israel.
The Color Red alert system did not sound during either launching.
The attacks emanating from Gaza resumed on Wednesday after two weeks of relative calm, when a mortar landed within Eshkol Regional Council limits but caused no injury or damage.
On Thursday a rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled territory landed in the Netivot area. There were no reports of injury in that incident either.
IDF sources said that the Color Red alert system in Netivot did not sound because it was turned off.
The system, they added, had been turned off to avoid false alarms. The Color Red system is made active following military intelligence assessments.
Also this week, the Shin Bet published data summing up the security situation in 2009, which stated that 566 rockets were fired on Israel in the past year, with most of them being launched in January, during Operation Cast Lead.
According to the Shin Bet this is a significant decline from the 2,048 rockets which were fired at Israel in 2008.
Ilana Curiel, Ali Waked and Hanan Greenberg contributed to the report
