The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has reported that unspecified Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip violated a nascent ceasefire after only 15 minutes, telling Newsweek it intercepted a rocket fired towards southern Israel.
Rocket sirens sounded in the evacuated southern Israeli towns of Kissufim and Ein HaShlosha early on Friday morning, shortly after a four-day ceasefire came into effect that will allow a prisoner exchange and the delivery of humanitarian aid into the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip.
"There was a rocket and it was intercepted," the IDF Spokesperson's Unit told Newsweek of the reports, noting it was fired at 7:15 a.m. local time; 15 minutes after the ceasefire—which the IDF is calling an "operational pause"—came into effect.
It is not yet clear which group was responsible for the alleged rocket launch, though the IDF has previously said Hamas bears responsibility for any attacks from Gaza into southern Israel given it holds influence over other local militant groups.
CNN also reported possible "sporadic Israeli artillery fire" minutes after the truce came into effect on Friday morning, with its journalists in the southern Israel city of Sderot reporting an end to the sounds of heavy weapons fire around 7:18 a.m.
Newsweek has contacted a Hamas spokesperson by WhatsApp to request comment.
Friday's pause in the fighting comes after several weeks of tough negotiations between Israel, Hamas, the U.S., Egypt and Qatar. It is the first significant break in combat since the Hamas infiltration attack into southern Israel on October 7, which killed some 1,200 people and saw around 240 taken back into the Gaza Strip as hostages.
Israel's bombardment of the Strip began immediately, and to date has killed more than 13,000 Palestinians, according to data from the Gaza Health Ministry cited by the Associated Press. The ministry has now stopped releasing updated casualty figures, saying it is not possible to keep track of the rising death toll amid Israel's offensive.
The truce will allow hundreds of humanitarian aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt. But there appears little hope of an imminent end to the fighting.
Israeli leaders have vowed to "crush and destroy" Hamas in Gaza, a 141-square-mile coastal strip of land controlled by the Islamist group since 2007. The statelet has been under Israeli-Egyptian blockade since that same year.
Intense IDF-Hamas clashes have taken place in the northern portion of the Strip for several weeks, with Israeli authorities ordering local residents to evacuate to the south. But the IDF appears to be preparing for an offensive into the southern part of Gaza soon after the current truce ends.
On Friday morning, The Times of Israel reported that the IDF used riot dispersal measures to prevent Palestinians returning to their homes in the northern part of the Strip amid the pause in fighting.
Update 11/24/23, 10:13 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with further details.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
David Brennan is Newsweek's Diplomatic Correspondent covering world politics and conflicts from London with a focus on NATO, the European ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
