Terrorists from the Gaza Strip fired at least three Grad missiles at southern Israel early Friday morning. The Iron Dome missile interceptor was successfully employed against some of the Grads, but one missile, fired later in a second round of launchings, hit a synagogue in Ashdod at 8:15 a.m.
A second missile landed next to a yeshiva. Six men were wounded by shrapnel, one of them seriously.
One of the early morning missiles exploded in the vicinity of the city of Be’er Sheva. Two other missiles exploded near Ashdod. At that point, there were no reports of physical injuries or damage in the earlier attacks until 8:15 when Israel's second radio channel announced the hit on the house of prayer.
Several minutes later, a Kassam rocket was launched at southern Israel. The rocket exploded in the vicinity of the city of Ashkelon. No physical injuries or damage were reported.
Overnight, terrorists fired several Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip. The rockets landed in open area in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. There were no reports of injuries or damages.
Also, IAF aircraft successfully targeted seven terror targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Thursday. In northern Gaza, the targets included a weapon manufacturing site and two terror activity sites. In southern Gaza, the targets included two smuggling tunnels, a terror tunnel and a terror activity site.
The sites were targeted in response to the combined terrorist attacks that took place Thursday near the city of Eilat and resulted in the deaths of eight Israelis, as well as the firing of rockets at Israel from Gaza following the attacks.
Several hours following the terror attacks, the IDF killed the terrorist commander who presided over the attacks. Prime Minister Netanyahu had announced to the nation that the arch-terrorists were not alive anymore.
The top terrorist was Abu Awad Kamel a-Neirab, commander of the Salah a-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, an offshoot of Hamas. He was killed along with two other head of the PRC and a child who was with him despite the fact that it had been announced that he was a target for the IDF.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three Palestinian workers working in Israel were seriously injured Saturday morning when an unidentified number of Kassam rockets exploded in southern Ashdod, Magen David Adom paramedics reported. A number of hours prior, Hamas's armed wing had announced an end to a two-year old truce with Israel.
Emergency sirens could be heard throughout the city before the blasts. A paramedics team that was dispatched to the site of the blast in Ashdod said it was treating three men in their 20s for serious injuries including shrapnel to the neck, chest, and other parts of the body.
Israel Radio reported at least 35 rockets landing in Israel since Thursday afternoon.
A short while earlier, a separate Kassam rocket exploded in the Eshkol Regional Council in an open field, causing no injuries or damage.
Hamas announced early on Saturday they were no longer committed to a more than two-year de facto truce with Israel since the end of a war in early 2009.
The statement was broadcast over a Hamas radio station in Gaza after Israel pounded the Strip for two days with air strikes in response to rocket fire and terror attacks on Thursday that killed eight people.
"There is no longer any truce with the enemy," the statement said in a move seen as paving the way for Hamas to escalate the violence with Israel.
The IAF launched a number of air strikes at the Gaza Strip Friday night in response to Thursday's terror attack the continuing rocket fire, killing at least one Palestinian Resistance Committee (PRC) leader and hitting tunnels used to infiltrate Israel as well as weapons caches.
Earlier in the evening, an Iron Dome anti-missile battery successfully intercepted a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip toward Ashkelon.
Three rockets exploded in the Eshkol Regional council Friday night over a period of several hours. No injuries or damages were reported.
In the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, an explosion occurred near a local kibbutz Friday evening. Local officials said a Kassam rocket landed in an open area. No injuries or damages were reported.
An hour earlier, two rockets fired from Gaza fell in northern Lachish not far from Kiryat Malachi. No injuries were reported although the explosion sparked a fire, which spread to an empty building. The building was lightly damaged before firefighters put out the fire.
Police have asked members of the public in the affected areas to follow instructions from the home front command.
One person was seriously injured and another moderately injured after a Grad rocket fired from Gaza landed in the courtyard of a yeshiva in Ashdod on Friday morning.
Four other people were treated for shock following the attack. All were taken to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot. An additional Grad that failed to explode subsequently fell in the area and was neutralized by the bomb squad.
Light damage was caused to the building as a result of the rocket fire.
The rocket attack came less than a day after a three-stage terror attack near Eilat killed eight people.
Earlier on Friday, at least 10 rockets were fired at various targets in the South including Ashkelon and Beersheba.
All of the rockets landed in open territory and no injuries or damage were reported.
Download JPost's iPhone application
