It was Tuesday evening when a bombing riots broke out in the Israeli port of Ashdod, in the middle of a campaign speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Militant Palestinians, the army later informed, had fired two rockets at Israel.
Now the Israeli military has responded - and in turn attacked several targets in Gaza with fighter jets. The army also said that. It attacked 15 "terrorist targets", including a weapons production facility and a tunnel in the Gaza Strip ruling Hamas, which was responsible for the rocket attack.
A video from Ashdod showed how 69-year-old Netanyahu, accompanied by bodyguards, quickly left the room on Tuesday when the sirens sounded. Later he continued his speech. According to the army, both missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system. There were no injuries.
Parliamentary elections in mid-September
Israel elects a new parliament on 17 September. According to opinion polls, Netanyahu's right-wing conservative Likud and the Alliance of the Center, blue and white, head-to-head in the election. Netanyahu's political rivals repeatedly accuse him of not acting resolutely enough against Hamas.
Hamas is classified by Israel, the US and the EU as a terrorist organization. She had violently taken control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. In case of his re-election, Netanyahu had announced on Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank. The Jordan Valley accounts for approximately one-third of the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. Israel sees it as an important defense barrier.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he wanted only to annex all the Jewish settlements in the Jordan Valley and the "Northern Dead Sea" - Palestinian places such as Jericho remained untouched. However, these settlements account for about 90 percent of the area.