BICOM

The Israeli military hit eight Hamas military targets yesterday after a missile was fired at southern Israel.

The Iron Dome anti-missile defence system did not intercept the Grad missile, which landed in an open area in the eastern part of the Eshkol region. In response, the Israeli Air Force attacked eight targets in three military compounds in the Gaza Strip. The targets included a training camp, a site for manufacturing weapons and a site for storing weapons. Hamas did not officially claim responsibility for the attack.

Earlier on Wednesday, two Palestinians crossed the Gaza border into Israel but returned shortly after. Nine fires were ignited by flying firebombs launched from the Gaza Strip. In response Israel attacked a Hamas observation post east to Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Fuel supplies, paid for by Qatar, were delivered to Gaza yesterday. The reopening of the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossing for goods and services earlier in the week followed a significant decrease in attacks on the Gaza border compared to previous weeks, both in terms of the number of people participating in border attacks and the intensity of the violence.

An Egyptian intelligence delegation arrived in Gaza yesterday for talks with Hamas, their fourth visit in less than a month. Egyptian officials are trying to negotiate a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

Brig. Gen. Eliezer Toledano yesterday replaced Brig. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs as the new head of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Gaza Division. Toledano previously served as military secretary to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Speaking at the IDF ceremony, Fuchs said: “Most of the resources entering the Gaza Strip go toward digging tunnels and manufacturing rockets. Hamas digs into the earth and in doing so curses the land from which orchards could bloom.”

Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the head of Southern Command, said: “This period is a complicated one. Our advancements, our developments and our advantages over our enemy are clear and palpable. The enemy is deterred and the people are desperate, looking in every way under the ground and above it to harm our nation.”