A rocket launched from the Gaza Strip struck an Israeli city near the border with the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday causing no casualties, authorities said.
“One rocket struck the city of Sderot, landing in the city in an open area (with) no injuries,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement, reports BSS.
The area was closed off and bomb disposal teams were working at the site, he added. The Israeli military said the rocket had been fired from the Gaza Strip, run by the Islamist movement Hamas, at Sderot, part of which lies barely a kilometer (less than a mile) northeast of the enclave.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. The Israeli army and Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008 and there are frequent flare-ups along the border.
Israel often responds to rocket fire from Gaza with air strikes. In August, it carried out dozens of retaliatory strikes after a rocket hit Sderot, a far larger response than usual.
Israeli media reported that attack was the first time downtown Sderot had been struck by a rocket from Gaza since the last war in 2014.
Hardliners who sympathize with jihadists of the Islamic State group have claimed recent rocket fire from Gaza, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such activity.
