Some half a million Israelis spent much of their weekend running to bomb shelters, with school camps remaining closed in one city July 6 because of rocket fire from Gaza.

“The Ashdod municipality had said on Saturday night that no classes or other planned activities would be allowed to open, except inside bomb shelters.”

The Hamas terror organization, which controls Gaza, claimed it can hit any city in Israel, under its slogan “all cities are close to Gaza.” A picture depicting a heroic jihadist carrying a Grad rocket can be seen on the homepage of the Hamas information website and other Hamas-affiliated websites.

There was a steep increase in rockets shot at Israel over the past four days.

“110 rockets were fired into Israel, 80 of them exploded in urban areas in the Negev. Ten rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome (defense system).”

Beersheba was targeted for the first time since 2012. Although rockets were fired at the city, they were intercepted by Iron Dome.

“Several rockets were shot down in recent days, including over Beersheba, the largest city in the Negev, on Saturday night.”

Even with Israel’s readiness to enter a ceasefire, rocket and mortar attacks against civilian targets continued. As a result, Israel said it would do everything necessary to protect its citizens.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said July 6 “we worked against many Hamas targets in Gaza during the night. Experience shows that moments like these require calm and responsible responses rather than inflammatory and reckless ones.”

[Photo: Hamas website]