Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Gaza rocket: Two children and an infant were among the injured

Seven people have been injured after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a house belonging to a British-Israeli family in central Israel.

The rocket came down at 05:25 (03:25 GMT) in the community of Mishmeret, 20km (12 miles) north of Tel Aviv.

This is the furthest a Palestinian rocket has reached in Israel since the 2014 conflict with militants in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to the US over the attack and vowed to respond with force.

So far no-one has said they carried out the attack. The Israeli military accused the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, but a Hamas official said it had "no interest" in doing so.

A week and a half ago, two rockets were launched towards Tel Aviv and nobody was hurt. The Israeli military responded with dozens of air strikes across Gaza, which injured four people.

Hamas and Israeli officials later said those rockets had been fired "by mistake".

What happened on Monday?

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the rocket that hit the house in Mishmeret was launched from Rafah in southern Gaza, about 120km (75 miles) away.

The explosion from the rocket severely damaged the house and set it on fire.

Israel's Magen David Adom ambulance service said it had treated two women who were moderately wounded and five other people, including an infant, a three-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, who had minor wounds.

The house belonged to Robert and Susan Wolf, two British-Israeli dual nationals who are originally from London.

Mr Wolf told the Daily Telegraph newspaper that he had been at home with his wife, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren when the rocket hit.

"If we hadn't got to the bomb shelter in time I would be burying all my family," he said.

The blast also caused damage to at least one nearby home and several vehicles.

Although the rocket triggered sirens in the Sharon and Emek Hefer regions, Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system was not activated.

When asked for an explanation, an IDF spokesman told the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper: "Iron Dome protects the areas in which it is stationed, according to operational situation assessments."

Intended to combat missiles launched from ranges of between 40km and 70km, each Iron Dome battery can protect an area of roughly 155 sq km.

But the BBC's defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus says there is a limited number of batteries available and they need to be deployed correctly to meet the most likely threats.

The failure to intercept this missile, he adds, is a reminder of the altogether greater challenge should Israel be engaged in a conflict on its northern borders, where the volume of Iranian and Hezbollah missiles might swamp its defensive systems.

Who was behind the attack?

IDF spokeswoman Major Mika Lifshitz blamed Hamas, which has fought three wars with Israel since 2008.

"It's a Hamas rocket, itself made by Hamas," she said. "It has an ability to reach more than 120km."

"We see Hamas as responsible for all that happens in the Gaza Strip," she added.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Cars parked near the house were damaged by fragments from the rocket

Maj Lifshitz said the IDF was deploying two additional brigades to the area surrounding Gaza, and that there was a "very limited" calling up of reservists.

The Israeli authorities have also closed the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings with Gaza, and closed roads and suspended agricultural work near the boundary fence with Gaza.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said in a statement: "There was a criminal attack on the State of Israel, and we will respond forcefully."

The British ambassador to Israel, David Quarrey, said there could "be no justification of any kind for this attack".

Jason Greenblatt, the US special representative for international negotiations, wrote on Twitter: "We condemn this violence from Gaza and affirm Israel's right to defend itself."

Hamas has not commented on the attack publicly, but an unnamed official told AFP news agency that "no-one from the resistance movements, including Hamas, has an interest in firing rockets from the Gaza Strip towards the enemy".

The Times of Israel reported that the Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza had launched an investigation to determine who was behind the rocket launch.

Islamic Jihad, another militant group, warned Israel against retaliatory strikes. "[Its] leaders must know that we will respond forcefully to their aggression," he said.

Could the situation escalate?

The timing of this rocket launch comes at a very sensitive time.

The Israeli prime minister is fighting a close election campaign in which he is brandishing his security credentials. He had just arrived in Washington, where he was due to meet President Trump twice and give a speech.

He will now go once to the White House and then says he will return home "to manage our actions from close at hand".

Already fears of an escalation were high with this week's anniversary of the start of protests at Gaza's boundary fence with Israel.

Egyptian security officials - who've been trying to broker a longer-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas - were due in Gaza this morning. Now, their efforts to bring quiet are in jeopardy. </s> A vehicle and two Hamas “observation posts” have been targeted and destroyed by Israeli Defense Forces, while the Iron Dome anti-missile system has intercepted at least three rockets fired at Israel from Gaza.

A “barrage of projectiles” was launched towards southern Israel after IAF aircraft and IDF tanks shelled the militant organization’s targets inside the enclave. The destroyed targets included a vehicle allegedly belonging to a Hamas operative, believed to have been “heavily involved” in explosive balloon attacks. In addition, the IDF struck two Hamas observation posts.

“The Hamas terror organization will bear the consequences for facilitating terror and instability,” the IDF said.

On Tuesday night sirens sounded in Hof Ashkelon, Sha'ar HaNegev and Eshkol Regional Councils when nine rockets were launched from the Gaza strip, the IDF said. One of the projectiles was intercepted by the IDF’s Iron Dome Aerial Defense System. Afterwards, Israel detected three more incoming rockets, two of which were tackled by the air defense system. There were no reports of injuries or damage from the other eight projectiles, which usually strike uninhabited areas.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli jet destroyed another car and an observation post used by Palestinians to launch arson balloons. Over the last couple of weeks, Israel has intensified its effort to stop balloon and kite launches of homemade incendiary devices, which have become a symbol of Arab resistance during the Great March of Return protests along the Gaza-Israeli border since late March. In order to put a halt to these terrorist activities, Israel has limited the amount of helium gas that can be brought into Gaza, restricting it to medical treatment purposes only. The IDF and the IAF, meanwhile, intensified the crackdown on Hamas, which they hold fully responsible for the upsurge in cross-border violence.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story! </s> JERUSALEM (JTA) — Code Red rocket warning sirens sounded throughout southern Israeli communities near the border with Gaza as more than a dozen rockets were launched from the coastal strip at civilian communities.

The rockets were fired between 1:45 a.m. and 4 a.m. on Wednesday morning, sending thousands of civilian residents of southern Israel to bomb shelters and safe rooms. At least three were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.

Elementary schools and kindergartens, which are in regular session though the end of the month, opened as usual Wednesday morning.

The rockets came hours after the Israeli military fired on a vehicle belonging to a Hamas operative heavily involved in launching arson kites and balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israel as well as two Hamas observation posts in northern Gaza. The attacks were in response to repeated arson attacks from Gaza, according to the IDF. Several fires were sparked in southern Israeli communities on Tuesday due to the incendiary balloons.

“The Hamas terror organization will bear the consequences for facilitating terror and instability,” the IDF said following the rocket attacks.

The IDF has begun to fire warning shots at Gazan Palestinian groups preparing to launch burning kites and balloons and to retaliate for the arson attacks with air strikes on Hamas targets. Gazan Palestinian groups have retaliated for the air strikes with early morning rocket attacks on several occasions in recent days. </s> Jerusalem (CNN) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "massive attacks against terrorist elements" in Gaza will continue after militants in the coastal enclave fired approximately 430 rockets towards Israel.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Netanyahu said: "Hamas bears the responsibility not only for its own attacks and actions but also for the actions of Islamic Jihad, and it is paying a very heavy price for this."

Israel has so far responded with airstrikes on more than 200 targets across Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

One Israeli was killed by a rocket that landed in the city of Ashkelon just north of Gaza, a Barzilai hospital statement said, and two Palestinian militants were killed in the airstrikes, according to Gaza health officials.

The IDF denied killing a one-year old baby and the baby's pregnant mother in Gaza, and said the deaths were caused by a Hamas rocket that misfired.

A 58-year-old man was killed when a rocket hit his house in Ashkelon, according to a statement from Barzilai hospital. He is the first Israeli to be killed by rocket fire since the end of the 2014 war.

Two gunmen from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad were killed overnight in Gaza, according to a statement from the militant group. Two other Palestinian men died in earlier airstrikes on Saturday.

The UN said it is working with Egypt to try to restore a ceasefire and says both sides are putting at risk efforts to relieve the suffering of people in Gaza.

The escalation began Saturday morning with about 50 rockets fired towards Israel within the course of an hour and continued late into the evening.

The IDF said its Iron Dome aerial defense system had intercepted dozens of the incoming rockets.

In response to the rockets, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes on about 200 militant targets in Gaza, including a tunnel, rocket launcher sites and other military compounds used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ.) The military also struck a mosque in al-Shati in northern Gaza, which the IDF said was used a command and control center by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Turkey has condemned a strike on a building housing the office of its state-run Anadolu news agency, a building which Israel says is also used by Hamas's military intelligence.

A spokesman for Turkey's President said: "We urge all governments that claim to defend press freedom, including @USEmbassyTurkey to join us in condemning the Israeli government."

Israel announced that it is closing the two border crossings between Israel and Gaza, as well as closing the Gaza fishing zone.

The fishing zone was restricted to 6 nautical miles earlier this week following a rocket fired from Gaza that landed off the coast of Israel.

There was no specific date for when the crossings and the fishing zone would reopen.

Saturday's rocket barrage came less than a day after two militants from Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, were killed in an Israeli strike on Hamas posts in Gaza.

Israel launched airstrikes Friday after two Israeli soldiers were wounded by sniper fire along the Gaza border.

Two other Palestinians died in Gaza Friday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, with both men succumbing to their wounds after being shot by Israeli troops during protests along the Gaza fence, according to health officials.

In the run-up to that election, Egypt succeeded in mediating an agreement between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, following an exchange of rockets and airstrikes in March.

The agreement, though never publicly acknowledged by Israel, included measures aimed at loosening the restrictions imposed on Gaza's 2 million inhabitants.

Recent pronouncements by Hamas officials have suggested growing frustration that Israel has not moved fast enough to fulfill its pledges, including allowing the transfer of millions of dollars of extra funding from Qatar.

The upturn in violence comes as Israel is preparing to mark Independence Day next week and host the Eurovision Song Contest the following week.

On Saturday evening, the UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, announcing renewed efforts with Egypt to restore calm, called on all parties to immediately de-escalate or risk a conflict with "grave consequences for all." </s> A barrage of around 50 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza on Saturday, witnesses said, and the Israeli military said it responded with an air strike targeting “two rocket launchers” in the Palestinian enclave.

The army said Saturday that sirens warning of incoming projectiles sounded several times in southern Israel.

In response, Israeli aircraft targeted two launch sites in northern Gaza. Local media reported three Palestinian casualties.

The deadly flare-up between Israel and Gaza militants enters a second day, shattering a month-long Egyptian-mediated easing of hostilities.

On Friday, Israel said two soldiers were wounded by gunshots from the Hamas-controlled territory. No group claimed responsibility for the shooting.

Israeli aircraft carried out retaliatory strikes, killing two Hamas militants. Two other Palestinians were killed during the weekly protests along the Israel-Gaza perimeter fence.

Egypt has been trying to reach a long-term cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, who fought three wars the past decade. </s> The Israeli military said more than 25 mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward communities in southern Israel.

The Israeli military said more than 25 mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward communities in southern Israel.

At least 25 mortars fired from Gaza into southern Israel

The military said most were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system and no one was hurt in the barrage.

But the volume of mortars would appear to be the largest fired in a single incident since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. Israeli media reported that one of shells landed near a kindergarten shortly before it opened.

The border area has been tense in recent weeks as the Palestinians have held mass protests aimed at lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power in 2007. Israeli fire has killed more than 110 Palestinians, most of them during the Hamas-led protests, which climaxed on May 14.

On Sunday, Israeli shelling killed three Palestinian militants from the smaller Islamic Jihad group after the troops found a bomb planted along the border.

On Monday, a tank fired at a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding another, after Israeli troops came under fire on the frontier while apprehending two armed Palestinians. Hamas has said that a boatful of students and medical patients is to set sail out of Gaza City’s port on Tuesday, aiming to break 11 years of naval blockade imposed by Israel, which could spark further conflict.

Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby.

It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests. </s> JERUSALEM: In response to rocket attacks that took place in the Southern city of Beersheba and greater Tel Aviv area on Wednesday, the Israel defence forces have bombed several targets in Gaza.

IDF spokesperson Lt.Col. Jonathan Conricus said "There are only two organizations in Gaza that have this caliber of rocket: Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It's not hard to narrow down who's behind it", reports The Times of Israel. However, in a joint statement, Hamas and PIJ publicly condemned the rocket attack, saying it was "irresponsible" and threatened to derail an Egypt-led negotiation effort. The IDF said it bombed some 20 targets throughout the Gaza Strip, including an attack tunnel being dug toward Israel from outside the city of Khan Younis.

The entrance to a naval tunnel, which would be used by Hamas's naval commando unit, was also destroyed in the retaliatory airstrikes.

Israeli air force jets bombed a number of weapons factory, military bases and other facilities connected to Hamas's tunnel-building efforts.

Palestinian media reported that the retaliatory strikes hit throughout the Gaza Strip in southern Gaza in Rafah and Khan Younis, around the central Gaza City and in the north of the enclave near Beit Lahiya.

Three people were moderately wounded in the strikes near Rafah, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

An Israeli aircraft also targeted a group of Palestinian terrorists as they attempted to launch a projectile at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip, the spokesman said Hamas and PIJ said they "affirm our preparedness to confront the occupation's assaults.

Our guns will continue to be a protective shield for our people and our weapons are drawn at the face of our enemy.

" IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said, "Iron Dome air defence batteries were not activated during the rocket attack".

Rocket attacks on Beersheba home to more than 200,000 people are rare and considered a major escalation. It was only the second rocket fired at Beersheba since the 2014 Gaza war.

The previous rocket, which struck a field north of Beersheba on August 9, came as Palestinians fired dozens of projectiles at Israeli communities along the Gaza border.

Following the rocket attack, schools were closed in Beersheba and in the communities immediately surrounding the Gaza Strip, the army said.

Residents of the Gaza periphery were also barred from gathering in groups larger than 300 people outdoors and 500 people indoors. </s> Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at the southern city of Beersheba early Wednesday that landed and exploded in the courtyard of a house, causing serious damage, but no injuries.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had identified two launches from Gaza. One targeted Beersheba located some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Strip. A second rocket was fired out to sea and landed off the coast of a major city in the Tel Aviv area.

Rocket attacks on Beersheba are rare and considered a major escalation. The attack came after Israel’s defense minister warned the military was gearing up for a major strike on Gaza to stop ongoing violence.

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Rocket warning sirens blared at 3:40 a.m. and residents reported hearing a loud blast. The rocket landed in the courtyard of a private house. No one was hurt in the explosion but five people were being treated for anxiety.

A Magen David Adom medic said among those treated were a mother and her three children. The woman had lightly hurt her head when she fell running to the bomb shelter when the siren went off, he said, adding that they were taken to a hospital.

A woman and three children were inside this home in #Israel when the rocket from #Gaza slammed into their home. pic.twitter.com/1210PdqRxF — Emanuel Miller (@emanumiller) October 17, 2018

It was only the second rocket fired at Beersheba since the 2014 Gaza war. The previous rocket struck a field north of Beersheba on August 9 and came as Palestinians fired dozens of projectiles at Israeli communities along the Gaza border.

Most of those attacks are carried out with mortars or short-range Qassam rockets, however, Palestinian terror groups can only reach Beersheba with longer-range rockets, notably the Grad.

Even though the sirens went off, the rocket was not intercepted by the Iron Dome system.

Following the attack, the Beersheba municipality announced that schools in the city would be closed for the day.

In an initial response, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman ordered the crossings into Gaza closed. Media reports said IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot was cutting short his visit to the US, following the attack.

The attack come after Liberman on Tuesday urged the cabinet to authorize large-scale military campaign against the Hamas terror group in Gaza in light of ongoing riots and violence along the Strip’s security fence.

Sirens wail across Beersheva as Red Alert is activated for an incoming rocket from #Gaza. #Israel pic.twitter.com/1NlCp2YIHq — Joe (@Jtruzmah) October 17, 2018

“I’ve held a series of meetings with the head of the Southern Command, the head of the [Gaza] Division, the brigade commanders, the battalion commanders, also with soldiers. My impression is that they all have reached the understanding that the situation as it is today cannot continue,” Liberman said.

According to the defense minister’s assessment, a “serious blow” to Hamas would result in four to five years of calm along the Gaza border — akin to the quiet that persisted from the end of the 2014 Gaza war, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, until the start of the current round of clashes in late March, a few limited skirmishes notwithstanding.

Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have participated in a series of protests and riots dubbed the “Great March of Return,” which have mostly involved the burning of tires and rock-throwing along the security fence, but have also seen shooting attacks and bombings as well as the sending of incendiary balloons and kites into Israel.

There have also been several flareups that took Israel and Hamas to the brink of war, with Palestinians firing rockets into Israel and the IDF responding with airstrikes.

Some 155 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more have been injured in the clashes with IDF troops, according to AP figures; Hamas has acknowledged that dozens of the dead were its members. One Israeli soldier was shot dead by a sniper on the border.

The riots began as weekly events, but in recent weeks — due to both an internal Palestinian conflict and failed indirect negotiations with Israel — the clashes have become a daily event.

The defense minister said the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and convinced him that a full-scale military action was necessary in Gaza was the rioting that took place along the border last Friday evening, after Israel allowed additional fuel into the Strip that had been purchased by Qatar.

“We have exhausted all other options in Gaza,” Liberman said during a visit to the IDF’s Gaza Division headquarters near the Strip.

“Now is the time to make decisions,” he added.

The security cabinet, which approves such military campaigns, met Sunday to discuss the possibility of an attack against Hamas, but ultimately decided to wait until the week’s end in order to give negotiators a chance to convince the group to abandon its current violent tactics.

On Wednesday, the cabinet was due to meet again, but the meeting was called off in the wake of the overnight rocket attack. </s> Two Palestinian civilians were killed and five others wounded in an air strike that hit a tunnel in Gaza near the Egyptian border.

It was unclear who launched the attack on Thursday. A Palestinian official blamed Israel; however, a military spokeswoman denied any knowledge of the strike.

Ashraf al-Qedra, Gaza's health ministry spokesperson, said in a statement the two men were "martyred and five other people were wounded as a result of being targeted by an Israeli warplane along the Palestinian-Egyptian borders".

According to al-Qedra, the two men killed were identified as Hossam al-Sufi, 24, and Mohammed al-Aqra, 38.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was unaware of the attack, which happened pre-dawn between the Gaza Strip and Rafah on the Egyptian side of the border.

READ MORE: Fatah and Hamas to form unity government

The incident took place after at least three rockets were fired from the Sinai peninsula into Israel's southernmost resort city of Eilat late on Wednesday.

The Israeli army said in a statement its missile defence system, known as the "Iron Dome", intercepted the rockets, preventing any casualties or damage.

Israeli media reported a group affiliated with the Islamic State of the Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack on Eilat.

Gaza has been under a decade-long siege imposed by Israel following Hamas' election victory and subsequent takeover of the enclave in 2007.

Since 2013, Egypt has largely shut off its border with Gaza, blocking nearly 2,000 tunnels connecting Gaza with Rafah, stemming the flow of much-needed goods and resources.

Egypt recently eased some border restrictions with Gaza.
Three rockets are fired at Israeli communities from Gaza. Two of them are intercepted by the Iron Dome.