Israel intercepted another rocket launched from the Gaza Strip

Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening, the IDF reported., adding that the rocket was intercepted.

The launch came at a time of intense tension following the escape of six Palestinian activists from an Israeli prison last week and the lingering hostilities of an 11-day war last May. Israel captured four of six fugitive prisoners over the weekend and expedited the search for the two remaining fugitives.

In retaliation, Terrorists in Gaza fired rockets at Israel for three consecutive nights. Israel typically responds to rocket fire with airstrikes against targets linked to the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.

Tensions were compounded by continuing difficulties in reaching a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas after the May escalation.

Egypt tried to negotiate an agreement. Hamas has demanded that Israel lift economic restrictions on Gaza, while Israel wants the terrorist group to release two Israeli civilians and return the remains of two dead Israeli soldiers in its possession.

Israel and Hamas have also failed to agree on a system for Qatar to provide welfare benefits to thousands of families in Gaza.

Israel says it is seeking assurances that Hamas is not diverting any of the funds for military purposes.

Israel and the Palestinian enclave of the West Bank were the scene in the fall of 2015 of a wave of anti-Israel attacks, many of them committed by young Palestinians with knives, vehicles or with firearms.

This Friday, the Israeli police killed a Palestinian who attempted a knife attack in the old city of Jerusalemreported the Israeli police and the hospital he was transferred to. Police said they opened fire after a resident of East Jerusalem, a Palestinian part of the city, trying to stab police.

The man turned out seriously injured and was transferred to hospital Hadassa, where, according to a spokesperson for the institution, his death was confirmed.

Security forces said there had been an “attempted knife murder” near the door of the the Lions, one of the main entrances to central Jerusalem, located in the eastern and Palestinian part of the city, annexed by Israel. “Police and border officials responded by shooting the assailantSaid a resident, in his fifties, who said he was seriously injured.

The reconquest of the escapees

The Israeli police have already arrested, in the north of the country, four of six Palestinians who escaped earlier this week from Gilboa high security prison. Since their escape on Monday through a tunnel dug under a sink, the Israeli authorities have been looking for them in Israel and the West Bank, where the fugitives are from and where the army has deployed reinforcements.

It was believed that they may have left the country, crossing the Jordanian border, but four of the fugitives they were arrested in northern Israel, about 30 kilometers from the prison.

Late Friday, police announced the arrest in Nazareth, the main Arab city in northern Israel, from two members of the Islamic Jihad armed group: Yaqub Qadri, 48, and Mahmud Ardah, 45. According to the local press, Ardah, who was serving a life sentence, was the main instigator of the escape. “The police discovered them and chased them by helicopter”, police said about the two fugitives. “They were held without resistance in southern Nazareth.

And in the early hours of Saturday, Israeli police announced the arrest of two other escapees who were “hiding in a truck parking lot.”

It is Zakaria al Zubeidi, a well-known former leader of the armed wing of the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abas, and Mohammad Ardah, a member of Islamic Jihad. The arrests took place in the Arab town of Shibli Umm al Ghanam, about ten kilometers east of Nazareth.

(With AP information)

Read on: