Israeli army says rocket fired from Gaza at city of Ashkelon

By Mohammad Sio

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Israeli army said Thursday that a rocket was fired from Gaza at the coastal city of Ashkelon.

The statement said it stuck an open area. No injuries or property damage have been reported.

The attack marks the first on Ashkelon in the past two weeks.

Ashkelon is 13 kilometers (8 miles) north of the border with the Gaza Strip.

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas last Oct. 7 in which some 1,200 people were killed.

Nearly 34,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 76,600 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.