IAF aircraft struck six terror targets throughout Gaza on Tuesday night, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced in a statement.
The statement said direct hits were identified and all aircraft returned safely to their bases.
The attacks came in response to the barrage of rockets that were fired toward southern Israel by terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza. 45 terrorist rockets slammed into southern Israel between midnight on Tuesday and 3:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Most of the rockets were of the short range Qassam type but three Grad missiles were fired at Netivot. In one attack on Tuesday evening, four Border Police officers were hurt, one of them seriously.
The latest IAF strike marks the fourth such air strike in the last 24 hours. At least six terrorists were killed in previous strikes. An IAF strike Tuesday afternoon severely injured a man who was on a motorcycle, Gaza sources said.
Earlier Tuesday, Hamas took responsibility for the rocket fire at the Negev. It said it was trying to hit the IDF’s Zikim base, and that the rockets were a response to IAF strikes.
The two terrorists who infiltrated Israel Monday were a Saudi citizen and an Egyptian belonging to a hitherto unknown group called the Shura Council of the Mujahedeen at Al Quds, Associated Press reported. The two appear in a video made public by the group in which they can be seen reading their final wills before launching the attack.
In a leaflet published along with the video, the group dedicates the attack to the Al Aqsa Mosque, Arab terror prisoners held in Israel, and Osama bin Laden.
The terrorists killed a 36-year-old Defense Ministry worker from Haifa before being killed themselves.