Itongadol.- The IDF on Thursday deployed the Iron Dome missile defense system over Ashdod, out of concern over potential rocket attacks amid heightened tensions.
In the early hours of Thurday, shortly after 12 a.m, a rocket was launched toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. According to Israel Radio, the Kassam rocket landed in an open area near Ashkelon. No injuries or damage were reported.
On Wednesday, the IAF deployed the Iron Dome missile defense system over Beersheba, Ashkelon and Sderot in southern Israel, over fear of rockets falling into Israeli territory.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya\’alon put the onus on Hamas for the recent attacks from the Gaza Strip, including Tuesday’s sniper shooting that killed Salah Shukri Abu Latyef, a Defense Ministry contract worker on the border fence. Abu Latyef was buried in Rahat on Wednesday.
The IDF struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday afternoon in retaliation for the cross-border shooting earlier in the day in which Israel sustained its first casualty since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012.