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Tel Aviv [Israel], January 16 (ANI/TPS): Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday launched over 50 rockets into southern Israel, according to local authorities.
The barrage, one of the largest launched from Gaza in recent weeks, appeared to target the southern city of Netivot, setting off sirens there and other nearby towns. Footage shared to social media showed some two dozen interceptions by the Iron Dome air defense system. Israeli media reported that one rocket struck a store in Netivot and another hit a warehouse in the adjacent community of Givolim, causing damage. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The rate of rocket launches from Gaza has dropped significantly amid the Israel Defense Forces' ongoing ground operation in the Strip. On Monday, the military said that Palestinians in Gaza have launched approximately 9,000 rockets that reached Israeli territory. Hundreds, if not thousands more rockets fell short inside the enclave, according to the IDF. The Israeli military has eliminated more than 9,000 Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war against Hamas, the military said on Sunday, citing data between Oct. 7 and Jan. 9. The IDF has also eliminated two out of Hamas's five brigade-level commanders, the army announced. In addition, 19 battalion-level commanders and 50 company commanders were killed. Before Israel launched the war in retaliation for Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attacks on the northwestern Negev region, in which 1,200 people were brutally massacred, the terror organization comprised approximately 30,000 fighters, the IDF has said. Over the past three months, the Israeli military attacked some 30,000 terror targets in the coastal enclave, and ground forces detained 2,300 terror suspects in the Strip for interrogation. At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas's attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children, soldiers and foreigners held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 136. Other people remain unaccounted for as Israeli authorities continue to identify bodies and search for human remains. (ANI/TPS)
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