On Jan. 15, sirens blared in Israel’s Gaza border communities, alerting residents to incoming rockets from Gaza. Israel’s anti-missile Iron Dome system intercepted two of them and another two fell in open spaces without inflicting casualties or causing damage. In response, Israeli air force jets bombed Hamas targets in the northern Gaza Strip in a raid described in Gaza as the heaviest since the November 2019 clash that followed Israel’s killing of a senior Islamic Jihad commander, Baha Abu al-Atta.

Israel believes the rockets were launched by rogue Islamic Jihad militants, but directed its military retaliation at Hamas. The military said it held Hamas responsible, as ruler of the Strip, for all violence emanating from the enclave. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are gearing up for additional rockets, and Iron Dome batteries have been deployed in the south.

The previous rocket attacks from Gaza occurred Dec. 25, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a political rally in the southern town of Ashkelon. Netanyahu, who was spirited off stage by his bodyguards when the sirens sounded, told his followers once he was allowed to return to the stage: “Hamas and Jihad don’t want me to win.” He then advised whoever was responsible for the rocket launch to pack his bags, adding that the person behind a similar attack designed to embarrass him during a September 2019 political rally in the nearby town of Ashdod had since met his maker — referring apparently to the Atta assassination.

Following the launch at Ashkelon in December, Hamas conveyed a message to Israel via Egypt, saying the firing had been carried out by rogue Islamic Jihad activists and promising to take appropriate action so that such “missteps” would not recur. Netanyahu, perhaps because he had no other choice, accepted the explanation to avoid undermining Egyptian-mediated efforts to forge a long-term Hamas-Israel deal, and hoped for the best.