Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Netanyahu Condemns Renewed Rocket Fire On Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned a rocket attack from Gaza on Israel, the third attack in two weeks.

“Israel holds Hamas responsible for all firing from the Gaza Strip at our territory. I have not heard anyone in the international community condemn this firing; neither has U.N. said a word. It will be interesting if this silence continues when we use our full strength to uphold our right to defend ourselves. Let it be clear: The spreading of hypocrisy in the world will not tie our hands and prevent us from protecting Israel’s citizens. Thus we have acted; thus we will act,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the beginning of the weekly Cabinet meeting, less than a day after the attack.

Rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel on Saturday evening. At least one landed in an unpopulated area of Ashkelon. No damage or injuries were reported. Local residents reported hearing the explosion.

In response the Israel Defense Forces fired on what it called in a statement “terror infrastructure” in the northern Gaza Strip. Hits on the target were confirmed, according to the IDF.

The IDF also closed the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings between Israel and Gaza, with an exception for medical emergencies and humanitarian aid. The crossings were closed on Saturday night following an Israeli government directive, according to the IDF, and will require a government directive to reopen.

The IDF reportedly on Friday deployed at least two Iron Dome Iron Dome anti-missile defense system batteries in southern Israel in response to a rocket attack from Gaza on June 3. A radical Islamist Salafist group called the Omar Brigades took responsibility for that attack, saying it was in retaliation for Hamas’ killing of an Islamic State supporter in Gaza the previous day.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.