The IDF on Monday struck a Hamas rocket launching position used in a barrage earlier in the day on the southern coastal city of Ashdod. The launchers, according to the IDF, were located adjacent to a civilian shelter in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.

“The launches were carried out from a humanitarian zone in the Deir al-Balah area… where a civilian population was residing,” the IDF said.

Eight rockets were fired in the attack on Ashdod, with two being intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system and the others striking open areas. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, the first on Ashdod in more than two months.

The IDF said that fighter jets struck the rocket launchers a short while after the attack, adding that secondary blasts seen after the strike indicated additional weaponry in the area.

“The attack was carried out precisely while avoiding harm to civilians who had evacuated the area before the attack was carried out,” the IDF said.

The IDF described the rocket barrage as “further evidence of Hamas’s cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure, placing its assets in civilian areas, using them as human shields.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)