Itongadol.- The IAF struck targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday afternoon after communities in the western Negev came under heavy rocket fire throughout the day.
More than 30 rockets pounded southern Israeli communities on Monday, with one Grad rocket reaching as far as Beersheba. The Eshkol and Sha\’ar Hanegev areas were heavily hit by rocket fire on Thursday morning and afternoon.
IAF aircraft struck three underground rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip in response to the fire.
The Security Cabinet was meeting on Monday to discuss possible responses to the continued projectile fire from Gaza which has seen some 150 rockets hit Israel\’s southern communities in recent weeks.
The IAF struck 14 targets in Gaza overnight Monday in two waves of air strikes. Nine terrorists – including seven Hamas operatives who were in a tunnel in Rafah – were killed, though it is not immediately clear whether the seven Hamas men died as a result of an air strike or a "working accident" in the underground structure.
One possibility is that the Hamas tunnel in which the men stood was filled with explosives, which detonated, but not as a result of the overnight air strikes.
In the second wave of strikes, launched a few hours later, five underground rocket launchers were bombed in Gaza.
Earlier, on Sunday night, the IAF struck a terrorist cell in central Gaza which was in the process of carrying out a rocket attack on Israel, the IDF said. Two terrorists were killed in that strike.
Hamas said most of the strikes were launched at a gathering point for its members in Gaza\’s southern-most town of Rafah, at the Egyptian border. Another strike was launched in northern Gaza, it said.
Nine Hamas fighters were killed and four people were wounded in the attacks, the group\’s armed wing said in a statement.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri accused Israel of committing a "grave escalation" in violence and threatened to retaliate, saying Israel would "pay the price."
Also overnight, adding to tensions, a mortar shell was launched into the Golan Heights from Syria and the IDF retaliated by shooting at targets across the border.