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 Security Service Says 60 Hamas Members Arrested in West Bank

An Israeli military vehicle uses a laser, on the day of an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle uses a laser, on the day of an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Security Service Says 60 Hamas Members Arrested in West Bank

An Israeli military vehicle uses a laser, on the day of an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle uses a laser, on the day of an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel's security service said Sunday it had broken up a network of Hamas militants in the occupied West Bank suspected of planning attacks, arresting 60 of the group's members.

The Shin Bet internal security agency said in a statement that "a significant, complex, and large-scale Hamas infrastructure was exposed" in the West Bank town of Hebron, AFP reported.

It said it broke up 10 militant cells that "operated to carry out attacks in various formats in the immediate time frame".

Hamas leaders "worked to recruit, arm, and train additional Hamas operatives from the area to carry out shooting and bombing attacks against Israeli targets", according to the statement.

Shin Bet said the three-month joint operation with the military and police was its biggest investigation in the West Bank "in the past decade".

It said terrorism charges were being filed against the suspects.