As Israel is pressured into a cease-fire, Hamas terrorists in Rafah continue to attack nearby Israeli communities.
At least 10 people were wounded in southern Israel, four seriously, on Sunday when Hamas fired 14 mortar shells from the Rafah area of southern Gaza at Kibbutz Kerem Shalom, according to the JNS news service.
Several rockets exploded near an Israel Defense Forces military facility, causing the casualties, the Eshkol Regional Council said.
🚨MOMENTS AGO: Sirens sounding in Kerem Shalom.
While the IDF is facilitating humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, terrorists fire rockets into the same area.
Israel remains committed to providing life-saving aid while Hamas remains…
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 5, 2024
“The injured are not residents of the council and we pray for their recovery,” the council said.
The wounded were evacuated to hospitals by ambulances and a helicopter. Their identities were not immediately known. One of those hurt was listed in very serious condition. Many military personnel were on the scene.
The Israeli Air Force subsequently attacked terrorist targets in Rafah, in the areas from which the missiles were fired.
“Fighter jets, directed by the Gaza Division, attacked the launch pad that carried out the launches towards the area. In addition, fighter jets attacked a military structure in the launch area,” the IDF said.
The military noted that “the launches were carried out by the Hamas terrorist organization near the Rafah Crossing, around 350 meters from civilian shelters. This is another clear example of the systematic exploitation by Hamas of humanitarian facilities and areas for terrorist purposes while using the civilian population as a human shield.”
The Kerem Shalom area, located at the Israel-Gaza-Egypt border triangle, is the site of the primary crossing between Israel and Gaza, where thousands of humanitarian aid trucks have passed through during the war.
The Kerem Shalom crossing is currently closed to the passage of humanitarian aid trucks, the IDF said.
The attack comes as the military prepares for an offensive in the last Hamas bastion along the Egyptian border should the terrorist organization reject Jerusalem’s latest truce offer, described by U.S. mediators as the most generous yet from the Israeli side.
Jerusalem says going into Rafah is essential to winning the war, given that four of the final six Hamas battalions—thousands of gunmen—are entrenched there. If the Rafah operation does not move forward, Israel has warned that Hamas will regroup and threaten Israel again. The terrorist group has pledged many repeats of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir tweeted following the attack: “We did not attack Gaza and we received the seventh of October, We didn’t attack in Rafah and we received a precise attack, Netanyahu, go into Rafah now!”
–Read more at JNS.org
