IDF strikes Hamas targets in Gaza in response to rockets fired into Israel

Israel bombed two sites in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning in response to five rockets launched toward Israel from Gaza some hours earlier.

No terrorist organization took responsibility for the rockets but Israel said it is holding Hamas, the terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip, responsible for all incoming rocket fire coming from Gaza.

The rockets were the first seen from Gaza since Operation Shield and Arrow in May. They came as Israel was pulling back from Jenin after having completed a substantial military operation there with a thousand ground troops.

Operation Home and Garden lasted 44 hours with a specific goal to root out terror groups from the Jenin refugee camp adjacent to the West Bank city of Jenin.

The five rockets fired from Gaza toward the nearby Israeli city of Sderot and the vicinity were intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, although shrapnel from an interceptor struck one home in Sderot. There were no injuries reported.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Israeli fighter jets struck “an underground weapons workshop used by the chemical unit of the Hamas terror group and a site for processing rocket components” and the strikes were in retaliation for the earlier rocket fire from Gaza.

Palestinian media reported that Israel struck sites in al-Baydar, west of Gaza City, and Beit Lahiyeh, in the northern Gaza Strip, claiming that several homes in al-Baydar were damaged.