BICOM

A rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip yesterday morning, landing next to a primary school in the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

Warning sirens were sounded and the schoolchildren, who were on a morning break, found cover in a bomb shelter. Although the rocket did not cause any injuries, two people were taken to hospital for shock and damage was caused to nearby structures.

Sderot’s Mayor Alon Davidi said: “It’s a miracle that no one was injured.”

Israeli tanks initially responded by opening fire at Hamas positions in Beit Hanoun, near the Gaza border. However, Israeli jets later carried out sorties on both the al-Tufah neighbourhood of Gaza City in the northern Strip and in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Hamas training facilities and rocket stockpiles were reportedly targeted.

An Israeli F-16 pilot was killed when forced to eject from his plane on landing, as he returned from a sortie over Gaza. It remains unclear what caused 34-year-old Maj. Ohad Cohen Nov to abandon the aircraft, which burst into flames.

The Ahfad al-Sahaba-Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis Islamist terror group said in Arabic and Hebrew statements that it was responsible for the rocket fire. It suggested that the rocket fire was a response to Hamas arrests of its members.

As the de facto ruling power in Gaza, Israel holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from the territory. An IDF statement yesterday said that Hamas installations had been targeted as “the sovereign in the Gaza Strip, which bears responsibility for every terror incident emanating from it”.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned that “Hamas… cannot keep silent if the escalation continues”.

There has been infrequent rocket fire from Gaza into Israel ever since Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, including one missile which struck Sderot in August. Israel has also recently begun building a massive underground barrier along the Gaza border in order to tackle the continuing threat of Hamas attack tunnels.