“Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou quickenest me; Thou stretchest forth Thy hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and Thy right hand doth save me.” (Psalms 138:7)
The relative calm of the year following Operation Pillar of Defense was shattered last night in the area south of Ashkelon as a rocket fired from Gaza hit. Thankfully, nobody was hurt, but some damage was sustained.
The rocket fell in a residential area of the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council late Sunday night. Sirens were heard in several neighborhoods, and some residents described hearing an explosion the likes of which they have not heard since the IDF operation last winter.
“I don’t want to imagine what would have happened if there would have been children there,” one resident told ynetnews.com.
Police and bomb squad members began searching the area immediately for the remains of the rocket, locating it at dawn Monday morning.
The sight of sappers in the area caused some area residents to panic, even though they had not heard the sirens at midnight.
We were very lucky that it happened in the middle of the night, when no one’s wandering in the streets,” a resident said. “It completely caught us by surprise. We have become used to the quiet since Pillar of Defense.”
According to Hof Ashkelon Regional Council Chairman Yair Farjon, “We will continue to be on the lookout, but we will continue with our routine, being sure that the IDF knows how to locate the source of the rockets and to stop them from being fired.”
Meanwhile, in Egypt, a military representative told Palestinian news agency Ma’an that a stray rocket fired from Gaza during a Hamas exercise landed in Egyptian waters a hundred meters from Rafah. Hamas claimed it was a trial launch, and that the Egyptian landing was an error.
