WATCH: IDF eliminates terror cell during preparation for rocket attack

The center of the IDF's attacks was a Hamas terrorist attack tunnel in the Khan Yunis area that crossed into Israeli territory, as well as a rear shaft of the tunnel.

By SARA RUBENSTEIN
Updated: OCTOBER 22, 2018 03:52
Documentation of an IDF attack on a terrorist cell during an attempt to fire at a settlement in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council on October 17, 2018. (IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit released a video Wednesday that, according to the IDF, shows a group of Palestinian militants preparing to launch a rocket towards the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council.
The video shows one individual loading the shells into the launcher, and then, seconds later, the IDF strike in response. The rockets and the terrorists then disappear in a dramatic and smoke-filled explosion.
The IDF struck more than 20 Hamas targets throughout the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire on Israel's south, including a rocket that struck a private home in Beersheba early that morning.
The center of the IDF's attacks was a Hamas tunnel in the Khan Yunis area, that crossed into Israeli territory. The tunnel has been under IDF surveillance for some time, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit said.
The strikes also targeted a munitions factory in the Khan Yunis coastal area; a factory for the manufacture of components and concrete slabs for building tunnels; a weapons production plant in Rafah and Tel Al Hawa; a military compound of Hamas's naval force in Khan Yunis; and terrorist targets in several military compounds, including a site for the manufacture of weapons and rockets.
"The Hamas terrorist organization is responsible for everything happening in and out of the Gaza Strip, and it will bear the consequences for the terrorist acts carried out against the citizens of Israel," the IDF Spokesperson said. "Hamas has continued to lead terror attacks against Israeli citizens and security forces."