Three rockets were fired at Israel by terrorists in the Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon, with one mortar striking an open area north of Kibbutz Kissufim and two other projectiles falling short of the border and landing within the Palestinian territory, according to the Times of Israel. No casualties were immediately reported.

While Gaza remains under the control of Hamas, the attack was claimed by a rival Salafi terrorist group called “The Grandsons of the Companions of the Prophet,” which said the rockets were “the first response by Salafist jihadists to Jewish attacks against Al-Aqsa,” AFP reports. Last Sunday, Palestinian rioters on the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa mosque is located, confronted police with rocks, firebombs and other explosives to protest Jewish presence on the site during the fast day of Tisha B’Av.

According to Haaretz, the Israeli Air Force retaliated to the rocket attacks by striking a Hamas target in Gaza on Friday evening, saying in a statement, “The terrorist group Hamas is the address in the Gaza Strip and carries the responsibility.”

Protracted violence between Islamists in the Gaza Strip has frequently spilled over into Israel, with Salafist groups affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claiming responsibility for multiple rocket attacks against Israel.

Friday’s attack comes after Gaza terrorists fired two rockets at Israel on Thursday evening, according to the Times of Israel. The projectiles landed short of the border and exploded in the Strip, with no casualties reported and no group immediately claiming responsibility. The Times noted:

The official policy of the Israel Defense Forces is to retaliate to attacks, maintaining that it holds Hamas responsible for all rocket fire from the Strip. Misfired rockets landing on the Gaza side of the fence do not generally elicit an Israeli response.

This Saturday, Gaza-based terrorists fired two rockets at Israel, with security officials confirming that one exploded within the Strip while the second hit Israeli territory, according to Haaretz.

On July 16, a rocket that struck near the coastal city of Ashkelon prompted the Israeli Air Force to target terrorist infrastructure within the Strip. After a spate of rocket fire from Gaza in June, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Israel sees Hamas “as the responsible party for what happens in Gaza,” and warned that, if necessary, the IDF “will strike with even greater force” to halt the ongoing attacks.

A recent study conducted by Prof. Ruth Pat-Horenczyk, a director at the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma, found that “40 percent of children in Sderot, a city less than a mile from the Gaza Strip that frequently comes under fire from rockets, experience symptoms of anxiety, fear, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

According to the IDF, Palestinian groups have launched over 11,000 rockets at Israel since 2005, with over 5 million Israeli civilians living under threat of rocket fire.

[Photo: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi / flickr]