Israel Says It Intercepted Rocket Fired from Gaza Strip

A general view of Gaza City during a stormy day in the Palestinian coastal enclave, on January 31, 2023. (AFP)
A general view of Gaza City during a stormy day in the Palestinian coastal enclave, on January 31, 2023. (AFP)
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Israel Says It Intercepted Rocket Fired from Gaza Strip

A general view of Gaza City during a stormy day in the Palestinian coastal enclave, on January 31, 2023. (AFP)
A general view of Gaza City during a stormy day in the Palestinian coastal enclave, on January 31, 2023. (AFP)

Sirens sounded in southern Israel and a rocket was intercepted from Gaza on Wednesday, the Israeli army said, as tensions soared between Palestinians and the country's new ultranationalist government.

The army said in a statement that sirens sounded in the city of Sderot and in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip late Wednesday afternoon. The rocket, it said, was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.

Local residents reported hearing explosions. Israel’s rescue service said it received no reports of injuries except for a 50-year-old woman who slipped and fell while running to a shelter. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket.

The action in Israel's skies Wednesday came after a spike in Israeli-Palestinian violence in recent days and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited with a call for calm.

An Israeli military raid on a militant stronghold in the West Bank city of Jenin last week killed 10, most of them militants. The next day, a Palestinian shooting attack in an east Jerusalem Jewish settlement killed seven people. A separate east Jerusalem shooting over the weekend by a 13-year-old Palestinian wounded two Israelis.

Following the unrest, Israel approved a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians, further ratcheting up tensions just as Blinken began meetings with leaders.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister, said the rocket fire from Gaza won’t stop him from implementing his punitive policies against Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons. He called for an urgent Security Cabinet meeting to discuss a response.



Israeli Fire Kills 23 People in Gaza, Many at Aid Site

Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Israeli Fire Kills 23 People in Gaza, Many at Aid Site

Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Two Palestinians ride a small boat at the seafront next to a tent camp in the Gaza City port, Friday, June 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israeli fire and airstrikes killed at least 23 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, most of them near an aid distribution site operated by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, local health authorities said.

Medics at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza areas, where most of the casualties were moved to, said at least 15 people were killed as they tried to approach the GHF aid distribution site near the Netzarim corridor.

The rest were killed in separate attacks across the enclave, they added. There has been no immediate comment by the Israeli military or the GHF on Saturday's incidents, Reuters reported.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, overseeing a new model of aid distribution which the United Nations says is neither impartial nor neutral.

The Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Saturday at least 274 people have so far been killed, and more than 2,000 wounded, near aid distribution sites since the GHF began operations in Gaza.

Later on Saturday, the Israeli military ordered residents of Khan Younis and the nearby towns of Abassan and Bani Suhaila in the southern Gaza Strip to leave their homes and head west towards the so-called humanitarian zone area, saying it would forcefully work against "terror organizations" in the area.