Update: Gaza terrorists apparently did not launch a rocket attack against southern Israelis on Thursday night, despite the triggering of a Red Alert rocket siren that sent Jewish families racing for cover in the border community of Kibbutz Nir Am.
Israeli military officials issued a statement after carrying out an investigation, “It was an internal explosion in the Gaza Strip that caused the red alert warning, not rocket fire” earlier in the evening.
The Red Alert incoming rocket siren was activated in the Shaar HaNegev Regional Council district at around 8:26 pm, an area close enough to the southern border that residents have almost no time at all in which to take cover before a rocket or mortar shell can reach their homes.
Prior reporting quoting officials in the south indicated a single rocket had been launched from Gaza and landed in an open area. The IDF now says the siren was triggered by an internal explosion within Gaza territory.