Rocket fired from northern Gaza toward Sderot in Israel

By Ahmed Asmar

ANKARA (AA) - The Israeli army said Friday that a rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip toward Sderot, in southern Israel, was intercepted by the country’s air defense system.

The army said fighter jets located the launch site in northern Gaza and destroyed it, according to a statement cited by the Times of Israel news website.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for firing what it said was a barrage of rockets toward the Sderot area.

The rocket launch from northern Gaza is the third this month, despite the Israeli claim to have destroyed Palestinian groups’ military capabilities in northern Gaza.

Israel has waged a retaliatory offensive on Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, on Oct. 7. The offensive has killed more than 31,000 victims and injured over 73,000 others amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the Palestinian enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught 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 is 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.