The IDF is gearing up for violent protests along the Gaza Strip border on Friday, one day after Israel struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip following the launching of a rocket towards border communities. Rocket sirens wailed and explosions were heard in Sderot on Thursday night and in the other areas around the Gaza border, but no injuries were reported.
Like every Friday since March 2018, thousands of Gazans are expected to protest and riot along the border fence, burning tires, hurling stones and marbles, and throwing grenades and improvised explosive devices (some military grade) towards troops.
The Great March of Return border protests have seen more than 500,000 people violently demonstrating along the security fence demanding an end to the 12-year long blockade. Every Friday the rioters, ranging between several thousand to 45,000, assemble at various points along the border.
The last few Fridays have been relatively calm with a significant decrease in the number of protesters clashing with troops along the fence. But tensions have risen once again following the launching of incendiary and explosive balloons towards Israeli territory, causing the IDF to impose a rare full closure of the Gaza Strip fishing zone. That in turn led to terrorist groups in the Strip to fire a rocket towards southern communities.
At least eight fires raged across southern Israel on Wednesday, while two explosive balloons exploded over greenhouses in the area.
The rocket, which was intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, triggered sirens in Kibbutz Nirim in the Eshkol regional council at around 12.15 a.m.
Early Thursday morning, the IDF said fighter jets “attacked an underground terror infrastructure on a military compound belonging to the Hamas terror group in the southern Gaza Strip. The attack was carried out in response to the rocket fire from the Gaza Strip earlier in the night.”
According to Palestinian media reports, the strike targeted sites in the neighborhood of al-Rayyan east of Rafah and al-Zaytoun in Gaza City.