Air-raid sirens sounded in Israel's Beersheba

JERUSALEM

Air-raid sirens were sounded in Israel’s southern city of Beersheba on Thursday for the first time since Israel’s 2014 onslaught against the Gaza Strip, according to an Israeli army statement.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli army claimed that at least 150 rockets had been fired into Israeli territory by Gaza-based resistance groups since the current round of hostilities began.

According to the army, 25 of those rockets -- which have targeted Israeli border communities, along with the southern cities of Sderot and Ashkelon -- were successfully intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system.

In a separate statement, the army said it had struck more than 120 Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip late Wednesday night.

The Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, has since claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks, which, it said, had come in response to the death of two of its fighters in a Tuesday airstrike.