The rockets were "successfully intercepted," the IDF said in a tweet. A third rocket fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip was also confirmed by the country's military, which said that remnants of that rocket landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, an area in the northwest part of Israel's Southern District.
Residents in southern Israel were alerted to the first rockets by a siren, according to social media users, specifically in the town of Sderot.
BREAKING: At least rockets were fired from the Gaza strip into southern Israel, 2 were intercepted by the Iron Dome battery pic.twitter.com/Aui2xB7Etf
— News_Executive (@News_Executive) December 13, 2017
Israel's Iron Dome missile and rocket defense shield has proven formidable against incoming attacks.
UPDATE: At total of 4 rockets were fired from the Gaza strip into southern Israel, 2 were intercepted by the Iron Dome battery and 2 landed in open fields, a number of people treated for shock pic.twitter.com/bAW01LSvUP
— News_Executive (@News_Executive) December 13, 2017
The IAF successfully intercepted two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel
— Israeli Air Force (@IAFsite) December 13, 2017
Rocket launches and other skirmishes between Israel and Palestine have become commonplace since US President Donald Trump decided to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel and directed the US State Department to begin making plans for the construction of a US embassy there. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stated the US "crossed all the red lines" with the decision, and leaders around the world have condemned it as inflammatory and bad for peace processes.
On December 13, Hamas announced the start of the third "intifada." Hamas said that the rocket shelling aimed at Israel from Palestinian territories is a matter of self-defense rights for Palestinians and that the movement had been provoked by the United States.
The Israeli military responded to the declaration of the intifada and continued rocket launches by conducting an airstrike on a Hamas compound in the southern Gaza Strip.
In response to the rocket fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel earlier today, the IAF targeted a Hamas military compound in the southern Gaza Strip
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) 13 декабря 2017 г.
Palestinian Red Crescent Society media spokesperson Erab Elfokaha told Sputnik that clashes in the West Bank on Wednesday, sparked by Trump's announcement, left 377 people injured, but there had been no fatalities.
