After a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Monday morning hit a home on Moshav Mishmeret in the Sharon region of central Israel, wounding three, the IDF issued a reserves call-up and was moving forces to the southern front.
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said that the IDF had placed infantry and an armored brigade under the IDF's Southern Command and had put out an emergency call-up to reservists to bolster the personnel available to operate the Iron Dome rocket defense system and anti-aircraft systems and carry out intelligence work.
"We are ready for a variety of scenarios," Manelis said, stressing that the rocket had been fired from a Hamas position and that Israel was holding Hamas responsible for "everything that happens in the Gaza Strip."
At 5:24 a.m. Monday, the Hamas-manufactured rocket was fired from the area around Rafah in southern Gaza and traveled 120 km. (75 miles) northeast before hitting a home in Moshav Mishmeret. Three of the seven occupants were injured, but the house itself – home to a couple, their children and two grandparents – was wrecked.
The incoming rocket set off a warning siren and the family managed to seek shelter in one of the children's rooms, which had been fortified as a secure space, before it landed in their living room. The grandmother, 60, sustained burns and shrapnel wounds when she ran out to pull the door to the safe room shut. She was listed in moderate condition. The mother of the family and a six-month-old baby were lightly wounded by shrapnel. The rest of the family, including a 12-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, were suffering from shock but physically unharmed.
The family's dogs were killed in the attack.
The IDF Homefront Command reported that the home was so unstable following the rocket strike that it would likely be razed entirely.
A Hamas source in the Gaza Strip told the Al Arabiyya and Al Jazeera media outlets that the rocket launch had been a mistake resulting from "human error."
Reports out of Gaza said that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad were evacuating their positions, expecting an Israeli military response.
The Prime Minister's office said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been informed about the rocket fire and was consulting with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Shin Bet security agency leader Nadav Argaman, the head of Military Intelligence and other senior security officials.
Netanyahu decided to cut his visit to the U.S. short and return to Israel after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. He also cancelled his scheduled address to the AIPAC Policy Conference.
"I've finished a conversation in which I was updated and consulted with senior defense officials. This was a despicable attack on the State of Israel, and we will respond powerfully. Given [recent] security events, I've decided to cut my visit to the U.S. short. In a few hours, I will meet with President Trump, and immediately after that, we will return to Israel to direct our actions from up close," Netanyahu said.
