In the early morning hours of June 27, 13 rockets were fired from Gaza at towns and villages in southern Israel. It was another rough night, with Israelis living around the Gaza Strip ordered to go to their protected spaces. The rocket fire did not surprise the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In fact, it was expected. Shortly before, an Israeli aircraft had fired a missile at the empty car of a Hamas activist who is a member — according to an IDF representative — of the squad that has been releasing flaming balloons into Israeli territory. At the same time, IDF tanks fired mortar shells at two Hamas observation posts, which also happened to be unmanned.

The IDF made a conscious decision not to harm members of Hamas, including that same activist (whose name has not been released), who had been using his car to deliver the flaming balloons to the border with Israel.

“Hamas will bear the price of this instability and terrorism,” the IDF representative said. Nevertheless, the question remains: What is that price, and who exactly will pay? The IDF destroyed a car belonging to a member of the Hamas military wing, while it was parked in the Nuseirat refugee camp, as well as two Hamas posts near the Erez checkpoint. In fact, these posts were nothing more than a small shack and a cement roadblock. During hours of operation, the roadblock is manned by a handful of Hamas border police, who oversee the movement of Palestinians into Israel.

The IDF knew that a missile strike on an empty car and the destruction of unmanned observation posts would result in the firing of rockets or mortar shells at Israel’s southern settlements. On June 20, dozens of rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel’s southern localities following an IDF attack in Gaza.