Hamas fired rockets at the Tel Aviv area on Sunday, marking the first time in four months that a barrage reached central Israel from Gaza, and emphasizing the importance of Israel’s fight against Hamas in its last stronghold.
According to Cumta, an app that publishes warnings from Israel’s Red Alert system, the rockets targeted areas north and west of Tel Aviv, including Petah Tikva and Herzliya Pituach, one of the wealthiest communities in Israel.
The Times of Israel noted that the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) predictions from last week had been fulfilled: “Last week, The Times of Israel reported that the IDF believes Hamas has the capability to launch rocket attacks on central Israel from the Rafah area, and when troops advance further into the city, the terror group is likely to carry out such an attack.
There were no reports of injuries, though several rockets fell in open areas and one building was damaged.
Separately, the IDF reported that it found rocket launchers in Rafah aimed at the humanitarian aid crossing point of Keren Shalom, which Hamas targeted late last month, as well as rocket components in a school in northern Gaza.
The IDF said in a statement:
IDF troops continue operational activity in the Jabaliya area. The troops conducted an intelligence-based, targeted raid on a weapons storage facility embedded inside a school where the troops located dozens of rocket parts and weapons. This is further evidence of the Hamas terrorist organization’s systematic exploitation of civilian infrastructure for its military activities.
During targeted operations in the area of Rafah, terrorist operatives who attempted to attack IDF troops were eliminated. During scans in the area, IDF troops located tunnel shafts and large quantities of weapons, including AK-47s, RPGs, grenades, and explosives. In addition, two rocket launchers in the Rafah area that were aimed at Kerem Shalom were struck overnight.
IDF troops also continued to operate in the central Gaza Strip and eliminated a number of terrorists in the area in the past day.
Over the past day, the IAF struck and destroyed over 50 terror targets across the Gaza Strip, including military structures, weapons storage facilities, missile launchers, observation posts, terrorist cells, and additional terrorist infrastructure.
The fight against Hamas in Rafah continues, despite a ruling Friday by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that Israel should halt the operation and refrain from attacks that pose a risk to civilians.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, “The Zionist Conspiracy (and how to join it),” now available on Audible. He is also the author of the e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.