A volley of rockets was fired from Egypt’s Sinai peninsula late Wednesday at the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat, but without causing casualties, the Israeli army said. “Some of these rockets were destroyed in flight by Iron Dome batteries,” a spokeswoman said, referring to Israel’s anti-missile interception system.

An official at Eilat town hall told Israeli public radio that three rockets had been intercepted and a fourth had exploded outside the town. The Sinai is the theatre of fierce fighting between Egyptian security forces and so-called Sinai Province, a branch of ISIS.

Sinai Province was set up in 2011, ostensibly to attack Israel by firing rockets across the 240-kilometer border or sabotaging a gas pipeline that runs between Egypt and Israel. But most of the fighting, by far, has been with Egyptian government forces and attacks on Israel have been relatively rare.

Israel strikes Syrian position

The Israeli army said it struck a Syrian army position on the Golan heights late Wednesday to retaliate for a tank shell that landed on the Israeli side of the zone’s demarcation line. The shell was probably a stray round that came from the fighting in Syria and did not cause any casualties, Israeli military officials said.

The Israeli army responded by targeting a “government position” on the Syrian side of the Golan, they said. The two countries are still technically at war, though the border had remained largely quiet for decades until 2011, when the Syrian conflict broke out.

The Israeli side of the border is sporadically hit by what are usually deemed to be considered stray rounds, and Israel has recently taken to firing in retaliation.

Two Palestinians killed

Meanwhile, two Palestinians were killed and five wounded overnight, Hamas said Thursday in Gaza, following a spike in tensions near the Egypt-Israel border. The Gaza health ministry blamed an Israeli air strike.

The incident comes after several rockets were fired Wednesday evening from Egypt’s Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip, at the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat. The Israeli military however had not confirmed by early Thursday that it had carried out retaliatory strikes.

Last Update: Wednesday, 20 May 2020 KSA 09:48 - GMT 06:48