Missiles Fired at Haifa and Northern Israel

The military wing of Hamas took credit for firing what it said was a R-160 missile at Israel's largest city in the north of the country.

Missiles were also fired at the Hof HaCarmel region and Hadera. No injuries or damage was reported from any of the rockets.

Both before and after the barrage on the north, Israeli warplanes and ships were reported to be striking several targets in Gaza. The Israel Defense forces said that 50 targets had been struck overnight.

Palestinian sources reported that one person had been killed.

Palestinian civilian casualties continued to rise Thursday on the third day of Operation Protective Edge, with no cease-fire in sight. 

Israeli jets bombed Gazan targets while the Gaza Interior Ministry sent out text messages to residents calling on them to disregard Israeli warnings to evacuate their homes.

Twenty-six Palestinians were killed in airstrikes on Thursday, bringing the three-day death toll to 86 – most of them children (22), women (15) and the elderly (12) – with nearly 600 injured, said a Gaza Health Ministry official.

Israelis took shelter from some 185 rockets, mainly in the center and northern Negev. A resident in Ashdod was critically injured when a rocket struck a car, and two soldiers moderately wounded by a mortar shell that landed in Eshkol Regional Council. These were the first serious injuries to Israelis during the operation. 

06:30 A.M. Sirens sound in several communities in the south of the country.

06:26 A.M.The Israel Defense forces says that 50 targets in Gaza were struck overnight.

06:15 A.M Sierens sound in Sderot and Shaar HaNegev.

05:50 A.M. Hamas military wing takes credit for firing R-160 missile at Haifa.

04:30 A.M. A 70-year-old woman has collapsed and died in Haifa while rushing to take shelter after the siren sounded.

03:29 A.M. Sirens sound in the north of the country and the Carmel, including Haifa, Zichron Ya'akov and Hadera.

02:04 A.M. Siren sounds in the area of the Shaar Hanegev regional council.

01:38 A.M. Iron Dome intercepts rocket above Ashkelon. (Gili Cohen)

01:26 A.M. Following a telephone conversation between U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the White House issued a statement that the United States "remains prepared to facilitate a cessation of hostilities, including a return to the November 2012 ceasefire agreement."

01:11 A.M.  IDF announces that the reports of a sea incursion in Eilate was a false alarm (Gili Cohen)

00:42 A.M. The Eilat beachfront has been evacuated due to a suspected incursion.

Israel Navy vessels stationed offshore from the Princess Hotel in Eilat spotted what they sus[ected was an attempted incursion from the sea just before midnight on Thursday, only a few hundred meters from the beach.

Security forces fired warning shots and flares. Police boats and rubber dinghies from the Eilat naval base arrived at the scene to support the missile boats that are stationed there.

The entire Eilat beach-front has been evacuated and Highway 90, leading from Eilat to Taba, is closed. 

Management of the Princess Hotel and other southern hotels have been instructed to prevent people from leaving the hotels and to reinforce their security. (Revital Levy-Stein)

11:40 P.M. The spokesman of the military wing of Islamic Jihad, Abu Ahmad, said that "what is happening right now is a war of nerves."

"The factions in Gaza are not going to surrender but to carry on fighting. Netanyahu is talking, but we aren't impressed by his words. We aren't worried. We are working quietly and calmly, according to the strategy we set for ourselves. I am not revealing secrets here. We will escalate our responses if Israel escalates its aggression. We will escalate both by rocket fire and other means."

He added that "the factions fired 300 rockets so far, but we have many more. There is total cooperation between the military wings, exchange of opinions, and joint strategy. The ball is currently in Israel's court. We won't agree to less than a cessation of all Israeli aggression in Gaza, and a complete removal of the blockade of the Gaza Strip." (Jack Khoury).