Israeli army denies Gaza rocket hit Israel

The Israeli army late Thursday said Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip had not fired a rocket at southern Israel, calling earlier reports a "false alarm." "There was no rocket," a military spokeswoman told AFP. "It was a false alarm." Israeli police earlier said a rocket had exploded in an open field in the Kissufim area, east of the Gaza Strip, causing no damage or injuries. On Thursday morning, the Israeli airforce attacked a Hamas security site south of Gaza City. Gaza medics and security sources said the attack resulted in no injuries. "The site was targeted in response to the rocket fire at southern Israel," the Israeli military said in a statement. On Wednesday, militants in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets into southern Israel, also causing no casualties or damage. In the morning raid Israeli aircraft struck what a military statement called "a terror activity site in the northern Gaza Strip." The raid came in response to rocket fire on Tuesday night which exploded near a home in southern Israel, causing property damage, police said, after a two-day lull in cross-border violence. On Sunday, five rockets or mortar rounds hit southern Israel, part of a wave of tit-for-tat exchanges beginning on October 7 when an air strike targeted two Salafists in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, killing one and critically wounding the other. Five children and three adults were also wounded in the strike, prompting a rare armed response from Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants, who fired a barrage of rockets at Israel. The last time Hamas militants had fired on Israel was during a flare-up in June, when militant groups fired more than 150 rockets, wounding five people, and Israel hit back with air strikes that killed 15 Palestinians. A series of retaliatory Israeli air strikes on Gaza at the weekend killed five militants, including a top Salafist leader. According to the Israeli military, Gaza militants have fired more than 505 rockets or mortar rounds at southern Israel since the beginning of the year, including upwards of 45 this month alone.