A dozen rocket alerts went off in Israel’s southern towns and cities near Gaza at around 10:30 PM on Sunday. That was quickly followed by a large number of Iron Dome launches and explosions in the air.
The Red Alert incoming rocket siren wailed through the regional council districts of Lachish, Coastal Ashkelon, Eshkol and other Gaza Belt areas.
At first it was believed to have been a massive rocket barrage against Israel. Now the IDF says the alarms and rockets were triggered by heavy machine gun fire from Gaza.
Hamas also says they did not launch any rockets at Israel, and are doing live (bullet) fire exercises inside Gaza.
“All the alarms were triggered by machine gun fire in Gaza. There were no rocket landings in Israel,” according to IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis.
Apparently, at least 10 Iron Dome missiles successfully intercepted speeding bullets.
MDA has gone to its highest level alert. United Hatzalah is treating people for shock from all the sirens and explosions.
IDF tanks hit two surveillance posts in northern Gaza in response to the gunfire and the IDF announced that they view any form of weapons fire towards Israel as being very serious.
Videos below show multiple Iron Dome launches and hitting objects in the sky.
One sarcastic observer humorously wrote in response to what just happened:
“Hamas and IDF conduct joint military maneuvers.
For the first time in recent history, Hamas and the IDF conducted a full scale joint military maneuver simulating rocket fire and Iron Dome take downs. HamaSpox — the joint drill is to ensure our systems work together in case of an emergency. The IDF Spox expressed satisfaction at the joint drill stating that the cooperation is a positive sign of things to come and demonstrates the solidarity of our two nations.”