Israel's Center Targeted by 'Two Rockets from Gaza'

The Israeli army announced that two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip targeted central areas of the country on Thursday evening, March 14. The 'Gush Dan' area, which includes the metropolitan city of Tel Aviv and more than ten other surrounding cities with a population of about four million, was the target of Palestinian rockets from Gaza. According to Israeli media, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, immediately went from Jerusalem to the Ministry of Defense building in Tel Aviv to hold an emergency meeting with military leaders. Colonel Ronen Manlis, a spokesman for the army, stated that the military was 'surprised' by the rocket attack as there was no information indicating its imminent occurrence. Israeli media reports that this time the 'Iron Dome' missile defense system was not activated to intercept the rockets. These reports also indicate that the rocket attack caused no casualties or damage, but residents reported hearing the sounds of 'heavy explosions.' The alert warning of the imminent rocket attacks surprised people in Tel Aviv and surrounding cities five minutes after 9 PM local time, causing some to seek shelter. The mayors of Tel Aviv, Rishon Lezion, Ramat Sharon, and other nearby cities announced that shelters would be opened for residents to stay overnight if the situation continued. Residents of Ramat Gan expressed the most concern as one of the rockets apparently landed in an open area of the city. Israeli media, citing military analysts, assessed that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization was responsible for the rocket attacks. However, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reported that 'an informed source' in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement told the Al-Manar television network that the Islamic Jihad was not involved in this attack and does not bear responsibility for it. Israeli media analyses have stated that the Islamic Jihad is the Palestinian organization closest to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Ziad al-Nakhalah, the new Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has recently visited Tehran several times and met with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and other senior political and military leaders of Iran. Reports from Israeli media indicate that although the country assesses that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was behind the attacks on areas around Tel Aviv, Hamas leaders, who are responsible for governance in Gaza, have withdrawn their forces from known bases of the movement, fearing that Israeli fighter jets would also target Hamas-affiliated sites. Reports from Arab media also indicate that a senior Egyptian security delegation that was in Gaza left the strip in consultation with Hamas leaders. Egypt simultaneously urged both Israel and Hamas to 'be patient' and refrain from reactions that would worsen the situation. On the other hand, Palestinian media aligned with Hamas and Islamic Jihad reported that leaders of these two Palestinian organizations expressed their unwillingness to escalate the crisis at present and denied being responsible for the attack. Israelis living in areas close to Gaza have been the target of the most rocket attacks in the 14 years since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza, but only in a few cases have rockets been fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv and its surroundings. This is the first time since the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas that rockets have been fired towards 'Gush Dan' cities. Benjamin Netanyahu had warned Palestinians a few days earlier that any attack would be met with a 'double response.' The attack on Thursday evening occurred while Israel is three and a half weeks away from its parliamentary elections; some Israeli analysts have recently stated that any security situation that portrays Netanyahu as a strong leader in public opinion would strengthen him and the ruling Likud party in the elections. However, leaders of all rival parties to Netanyahu or those aligned with him in the elections stated on Thursday evening that they support the government and the Prime Minister's decisions on security issues. The rocket attack from Gaza comes as Israel has multiple layers of missile defense, and the United States also deployed the advanced 'THAAD' system in Israel for the first time last week, but this system is effective against long-range and ballistic missiles. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have recently stated that they possess rockets capable of targeting even further than Tel Aviv.