JERUSALEM (AP) — A tense quiet has taken hold after a night of heavy fire as Israeli aircraft bombed targets across the Gaza Strip and Gaza militants fired rockets into Israel.

School in southern Israel was cancelled on Tuesday following the violence that erupted just two weeks ahead of Israeli elections.

The cross-border fighting was triggered by a surprise rocket fired early Monday from Gaza that slammed into a house in central Israel and wounded seven people. Gaza's Hamas rulers announced later in the day that Egyptian mediators had brokered a cease-fire but the firing continued.

The attack prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a visit to Washington and return home. He promised a tough response, setting the stage for perhaps the most serious conflict since a 50-day war in 2014.</s>As Benjamin Netanyahu boarded his plane in Washington for his hasty return to Israel due to the rocket fire from Gaza, the prime minister delivered his response to the latest attacks from the Hamas terrorists.

“We will deal with these issues,” Times of Israel reported Netanyahu saying. “We gave a very powerful response. Hamas needs to know that we won’t hesitate to go in [to Gaza] and take any required steps.”

Although Israeli elections are scheduled for two weeks from now, Netanyahu said that Israel will respond regardless of the timing. “This is unrelated to anything, not to any date, but only to Israel’s security needs.”

The prime minister also thanked President Trump for the U.S. recognition of Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights, which he said “is something that will be remembered for generations. It took us 50 years to achieve it.”

The United States realizes that “one important principle in international relations: When you start wars of aggression, and lose territory, don’t come back and claim it later. It belongs to us.” Furthermore, citing, that ancient synagogues were discovered in the Golan ,“We returned there. The Golan is ours by historic right, and because of the right to self defense.”</s>Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday that he was cutting short his visit to Washington after a Gaza rocket attack on Israel. He called it a “criminal attack,” and Vice President Mike Pence said the strike was evidence that Hamas terrorists cannot be a partner to achieve a Mideast peace.

The Israeli military said it was conducted by terrorists from Gaza’s ruling Hamas and injured several people. PM Netanyahu pledged to retaliate and said he would return home to handle the crisis shortly after meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

“The rocket attack by Hamas proves that Hamas is not a partner for peace,” Pence said at the annual convention of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Hamas is a terrorist organization that seeks the destruction of Israel, and the United States will never negotiate with terrorist Hamas.”

The rocket destroyed a residential home in the farming community of Mishmeret, north of the city of Kfar Saba. The sounds of air raid sirens jolted residents of the Sharon area, northeast of Tel Aviv, from their sleep shortly after 5 a.m., sending them rushing to bomb shelters. A strong sound of an explosion followed. The Israeli military quickly mobilized troops and called up reserves, setting the stage for a potential major conflagration shortly before Israel’s upcoming elections.

PM Netanyahu arrived in Washington on Sunday for what was to have been a three-day visit.

In his remarks, Pence also took issue with comments by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that he said were anti-Semitic remarks. Omar, a first-term lawmaker who is one of two Muslim women in Congress, has alleged that congressional support for Israel reflected “allegiance to a foreign country” and that Israel “has hypnotized the world.” She also accused Americans who support Israel of being bought off by campaign donations.

“Anti-Semitism has no place in the Congress of the United States, and any member who slanders those who support the historic alliance between the United States and Israel with such rhetoric should not have a seat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee,” Pence said.</s>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would "do what is necessary to defend our people" (AFP Photo/Jim WATSON)

Washington (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that he was ready to order further action in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after airstrikes in response to rocket fire.

"I can tell you we are prepared to do a lot more. We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state," Netanyahu told the US pro-Israel lobby AIPAC by video link from the Jewish state's defense headquarters.

Netanyahu cut short his visit to Washington to handle the response after a rare rocket strike landed near Tel Aviv, injuring seven Israelis, just two weeks ahead of elections.

Israel hit back with air strikes including on the office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire failing to take hold.

Before returning home, Netanyahu enjoyed a key pre-election boost when he met Monday with President Donald Trump who proclaimed that the United States considered the Golan Heights -- captured by Israel from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967 -- to belong to the Jewish state.

Pointing to Jewish historical roots in the Golan, Netanyahu told AIPAC: "Israel holds the high ground and we shall never, ever give it up."

Netanyahu again hailed Trump -- who in 2017 fulfilled another long-held Israeli ambition by moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to disputed Jerusalem.

But Netanyahu, without criticizing Trump, also denounced anti-Semites around the world including those who "march through the streets of Charlottesville."

White supremacists rallied in the Virginia city in 2017 where they chanted slogans against Jews and an assailant killed a counter-protester, with Trump facing criticism for saying the neo-Nazi crowd included "very fine people."

Netanyahu is facing a stiff election challenge from centrist former military chief Benny Gantz, who brought the American Jewish audience to its feet Monday with promises of an inclusive Israel.

Netanyahu's pre-election dealings with the far-right Jewish Power party, which calls for the forcible expulsion of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, has triggered condemnation even from AIPAC and other staunchly pro-Israel US groups.

Netanyahu cast a moderate image for himself at AIPAC, saying that both Israel and the United States "love freedom and democracy."

"We don't judge people by the color of their skin, their religion or their sexual orientation," Netanyahu said.

"I'm proud of Israel's vibrant democracy where no one -- no one -- is a second-class citizen. All of Israel's citizens are first-class citizens," he said.</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu locked in a tight race for re-election, the Hamas militant group has suddenly emerged as a major vulnerability for the Israeli leader.

This week's outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas, sparked by a rocket strike on a home in central Israel, was the latest reminder of Netanyahu's inability to find a way to cope with the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers.

Just two weeks ahead of the vote, Netanyahu finds himself facing questions from residents in southern Israel and tough criticism from opponents across the political spectrum.

Yair Lapid, a leader of the rival Blue and White Party, said Israel has lost its power of deterrence over Hamas on Netanyahu's watch.

"A terrorist organization can't determine our daily routines," he told Israel's Army Radio. "Hamas can't run the show. Hamas can't decide when the fighting starts and ends."

In the latest round of fighting, Israel struck dozens of targets throughout Gaza following Monday's early-morning rocket attack.

Palestinian militants responded by firing dozens of rockets into southern Israel, forcing residents to spend the night in bomb shelters and canceling school for thousands of children. By early Tuesday, the fighting appeared to have subsided.

The violence came less than two weeks after a similar conflagration sparked by a rocket attack on Tel Aviv, Israel's densely populated commercial and cultural capital.

Israel has grappled with the Hamas question since the Islamic militant group, which seeks Israel's destruction, toppled forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Israel has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza, restricting who and what enters the territory, fought three wars against Hamas and engaged in dozens of smaller flare-ups like this week's fighting.

This policy has succeeded in containing Hamas. Yet the weakened group remains firmly in control in the territory. Unable to topple Hamas, Israel has been forced to reach unspoken understandings with its bitter enemy to maintain stability in the impoverished territory of 2 million people, amid repeated outbreaks of fighting.

Hamas' Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, has compared the people of Gaza to a "caged animal." With few tools at his disposal, Hamas has tried to heat things up over the past year, staging weekly border demonstrations, allowing protesters to launch flaming kites and explosives-laden balloons into Israel and tolerating the occasional rocket attack, all in hopes of drawing concessions and easing the blockade.

This strategy has had only limited success but repeatedly put Netanyahu in uncomfortable situations.

Netanyahu came under tough criticism several months ago when he allowed Qatar, a key behind the scenes mediator, to deliver millions of dollars of humanitarian aid to Gaza in cash-stuffed suitcases through an Israeli border crossing. The money was badly needed to ease the dire living conditions in Gaza.

And every outbreak of violence draws renewed attention to the flawed policy of an Israeli leader who has made security the hallmark of his election campaign.

The recent rocket attack marred a visit by Netanyahu to Washington, where he was invited to the White House to celebrate the U.S. recognition of Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights. He then planned a campaign-style speech to the pro-Israel AIPAC lobbying group. Instead, the Golan announcement was overshadowed by the fighting in Gaza, and Netanyahu had to cut short the visit and rush back to Israel.

"This rocket was bad for Netanyahu," said Gideon Rahat, professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. "This conflict right now does not play into his hands."

Speaking to AIPAC by satellite on Tuesday, Netanyahu put on a tough face, saying Israel had pounded Hamas on a scale not seen since a 2014 war. "I can tell you, we are prepared to do a lot more," he said.

But in Israel, such claims are greeted with skepticism after so many rounds of fighting.

"The residents are angry that this has been continuing for a year. They want quiet and a normal life," said Gadi Yarkoni, leader of the Eshkol regional council in southern Israel.

After failing to capitalize on a series of corruption allegations against Netanyahu, his opponents are sure to step up the criticism of his Gaza policy in the final stretch of the campaign.

The centrist Blue and White Party, which is running neck and neck with Netanyahu's Likud, is led by Benny Gantz, a popular former military chief who led the army through wars against Hamas in 2012 and 2014. Two other ex-military chiefs are in the party's top ranks.

"If you are looking for deterrence, look to the people who brought the deterrence to Israel and led the army in times like this," Lapid said.

Whether this strategy can work remains to be seen. Netanyahu's rivals have offered various alternatives that have no guarantee of success.

Lapid called on Israel to resume its policy of "targeted assassinations" of Hamas leaders, a tactic that in the past unleashed heavy fighting.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the ultranationalist New Right party, called for even tougher action and for Israel to wipe out Hamas' entire leadership and military capabilities.

Speaking on Channel 12 TV, Bennett said Israel must "chase down every Hamas commander, from the chief to the platoon commander and the foot soldier. Just kill, kill these people, destroy their homes on a scale they don't know."

Such an operation, he said, would take months to complete. It also would carry a heavy price for both Hamas and the Israeli military.

Aron Shaviv, a political consultant and former strategist for Netanyahu, said the Israeli leader is "caught between a rock and a hard place."

He said that if Netanyahu responds forcefully in Gaza now, voters will wonder why he took a more cautious approach in the past four years.

"He would have a hard time explaining why he has changed his approach and why an attack on central Israel warrants a harsh response versus an attack on southern Israel," he said.

Fortunately for Netanyahu, he said Blue and White leaders have "failed miserably" to capitalize on their security credentials so far. He said alienated right-wing voters are likely to support other hard-line parties that would end up joining Netanyahu in a coalition in any case.

In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas is likely to continue to test Netanyahu until election day on April 9.

"Hamas is trying to press Netanyahu ahead of the elections to lift the blockade," said Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a pro-Hamas writer in Gaza. "This equation gives Hamas leverage that it can use against him. So I think escalation or calm will greatly affect the Israeli elections."</s>Israel will respond with force to a rocket attack that hit a residential area north of Tel Aviv, injuring 7 people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said after talking to top military brass.

The Jewish state will “respond forcefully” against Hamas after a rocket was launched from inside Gaza into Israel, Netanyahu said, according to local media. Shortly after the attack, he talked to the IDF chief of staff, as well as the head of Intelligence, who also saw it “as a criminal act against the State of Israel.”

Netanyahu said he will cut short his trip to the United States after the incident.

The projectile, fired early in the morning on Monday, hit a house in the residential Sharon area, northeast of Tel Aviv, leaving seven people wounded, including two infants who suffered light injuries, the emergency services reported.

Air-raid sirens sounded shortly before an explosion was heard in the area. The house caught fire and partially collapsed, but firefighters managed to quickly extinguish the flames as rescuers searched the rubble for survivors.

Top Israeli officials pinned the blame on Hamas, though no Palestinian group has claimed credit for the attack.

Nevertheless, senior Hamas figures have gone into hiding in anticipation of an Israeli response, according to Haaretz.

It is unclear what the Israeli response will be. Earlier in March, the IDF scrambled combat aircraft to bomb Gaza after two rockets reportedly fired from there targeted Tel Aviv. Explosions were reported in Khan Younis, on the south side of Gaza. The military said it was striking “terrorist targets.”

READ MORE: 6 injured after rocket from Gaza hits house north of Tel Aviv – IDF, police

The attack on Monday and Netanyahu’s remarks come two weeks ahead of a parliamentary election scheduled for April 9. The beleaguered prime minister faces potential indictment and one of the toughest elections in his political life.

to RT newsletter to get stories the mainstream media won’t tell you.</s>An early morning rocket fired from the Gaza Strip demolished a house in central Israel on Monday, wounding seven people and prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a trip to Washington. The military quickly mobilised troops and called up reserves, setting the stage for a potential major conflagration shortly before Israel’s upcoming elections.

The rocket destroyed a residential home in the farming community of Mishmeret, north of the city of Kfar Saba, wounding six members of a family. The Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people overall, including two women who were moderately wounded. The others, including two children and an infant, had minor wounds.

The sounds of air raid sirens jolted residents of the Sharon area, northeast of Tel Aviv, from their sleep shortly after 5 a.m., sending them scurrying to bomb shelters. A strong sound of an explosion followed.

The Israeli military said militants from Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement fired the rocket from one of their launching pads in southern Gaza Strip, near Rafah. Maj. Mika Lifshitz, a military spokeswoman, said it was a self-manufactured rocket with a range of 120 kilometres (75 miles). She added that two armour and infantry brigades were being mobilised to the Gaza front and that a limited drafting of reserves was also taking place.

The family home in Mishmeret was left in ruins, with tiles, broken furniture and debris scattered about. A shattered baby’s crib lay among the rubble and two family dogs died in the explosion.

“It’s a miracle that nobody got killed,” said Assi Dvilanski, a Magen David Adom paramedic who was one of the first respondents at the scene.

Netanyahu, in Washington to meet President Donald Trump, held emergency consultations with military officials back in Israel and decided to cut his visit short, cancelling a planned address to the AIPAC conference and meetings with congressional leaders.

“There has been a criminal attack on the State of Israel and we will respond forcefully,” he said. “In a few hours I will meet with President Trump. I will return to Israel immediately afterwards.”

Anticipating a strong Israeli response, Gaza’s Hamas leaders have apparently gone underground. Witnesses reported seeing Hamas evacuating its personnel from government premises. Hamas also announced that its Gaza chief, Yehiya Sinwar, had cancelled a scheduled public speech. Israel also shut down its main crossings into Gaza and imposed restrictions on fishing off the Gazan coast.

Monday’s attack came 10 days after rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel’s densely populated commercial capital of Tel Aviv. The Israeli military at the time struck back and the sides appeared to be hurtling toward another confrontation. But Gaza’s Hamas leaders said the rocket was fired accidentally and calm was quickly restored.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday’s attack, but it would seem to be much harder to dismiss the latest incident as another misfire.

A possible trigger could be a prison riot late Sunday when Hamas-affiliated prisoners stabbed an Israeli guard in the neck in southern Israel. Israeli guards moved in to subdue the rioters, wounding about a dozen prisoners, three of them seriously. In a statement, Hamas called for an end to the crackdown.

“We do not yet have a full understanding of who exactly ordered the firing of the rocket,” said Eran Lerman, a former deputy director at Israel’s National Security Council. “But clearly this is no longer something that can be explained away as a mistake or a technical failure.”

Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an Islamic militant Palestinian group that seeks Israel’s destruction and possesses a large arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of striking deep inside Israel. The territory is home to other Palestinian militant groups, including Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed armed organisation that also has a formidable rocket arsenal.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies and have fought three wars since the group seized power in the strip in 2007. Smaller flare-ups have occurred sporadically since Israel and Hamas fought their last war in 2014. Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all fire coming out of the coastal territory.

The outburst comes at a sensitive time for both sides. Israel is holding national elections in 15 days. Netanyahu, who also served as defence minister, is locked in a tight fight for re-election and has faced heavy criticism from his opponents for what they say has been an ineffective response to Gaza militants.

“The reality in which Hamas turned Israel into a hostage is unprecedented and unfathomable,” his chief challenger, Benny Gantz, wrote on Twitter on Monday.

Netanyahu has also come under attack from his own nationalistic camp.

“Israel’s deterrence has collapsed, and it has to be said in all honesty Netanyahu has failed against Hamas,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Yamin HeHadash faction in Netanyahu’s coalition. “Netanyahu is a good prime minister but a failed defence minister.”

In Gaza, Hamas has come under rare public criticism for the harsh conditions in the territory. An Israel-Egyptian blockade, combined with sanctions by the rival Palestinian Authority and mismanagement by the Hamas government have fuelled an economic crisis. The territory’s residents have little desire for another war with Israel.

Instead of a full-fledged conflict, Hamas has tried to end the blockade through a violent weekly protest movement along the Israel-Gaza border fence that it launched a year ago. It too has largely failed. About 190 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed during the weekly rallies.

Egypt, Qatar and United Nations are trying to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas but that effort has yet to bring about an agreement. At the same time, there has been an uptick in violence in the West Bank over the past week, with a stabbing and shooting attack that left two Israelis dead near a West Bank settlement and Israel’s killing of two Palestinians it said attacked troops.</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — A tense quiet has taken hold after a night of heavy fire as Israeli aircraft bombed targets across the Gaza Strip and Gaza militants fired rockets into Israel.

School in southern Israel was cancelled on Tuesday following the violence that erupted just two weeks ahead of Israeli elections.

The cross-border fighting was triggered by a surprise rocket fired early Monday from Gaza that slammed into a house in central Israel and wounded seven people. Gaza's Hamas rulers announced later in the day that Egyptian mediators had brokered a cease-fire but the firing continued.

The attack prompted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a visit to Washington and return home. He promised a tough response, setting the stage for perhaps the most serious conflict since a 50-day war in 2014.</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu locked in a tight race for re-election, the Hamas militant group has suddenly emerged as a major vulnerability for the Israeli leader.

This week’s outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hamas, sparked by a rocket strike on a home in central Israel, was the latest reminder of Netanyahu’s inability to find a way to cope with the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers.

Just two weeks ahead of the vote, Netanyahu finds himself facing questions from residents in southern Israel and tough criticism from opponents across the political spectrum.

Yair Lapid, a leader of the rival Blue and White Party, said Israel has lost its power of deterrence over Hamas on Netanyahu’s watch.

“A terrorist organization can’t determine our daily routines,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. “Hamas can’t run the show. Hamas can’t decide when the fighting starts and ends.”

In the latest round of fighting, Israel struck dozens of targets throughout Gaza following Monday’s early-morning rocket attack.

Palestinian militants responded by firing dozens of rockets into southern Israel, forcing residents to spend the night in bomb shelters and canceling school for thousands of children. By early Tuesday, the fighting appeared to have subsided.

The violence came less than two weeks after a similar conflagration sparked by a rocket attack on Tel Aviv, Israel’s densely populated commercial and cultural capital.

Israel has grappled with the Hamas question since the Islamic militant group, which seeks Israel’s destruction, toppled forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and seized control of Gaza in 2007.

Israel has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza, restricting who and what enters the territory, fought three wars against Hamas and engaged in dozens of smaller flare-ups like this week’s fighting.

This policy has succeeded in containing Hamas. Yet the weakened group remains firmly in control in the territory. Unable to topple Hamas, Israel has been forced to reach unspoken understandings with its bitter enemy to maintain stability in the impoverished territory of 2 million people, amid repeated outbreaks of fighting.

Hamas’ Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, has compared the people of Gaza to a “caged animal.” With few tools at his disposal, Hamas has tried to heat things up over the past year, staging weekly border demonstrations, allowing protesters to launch flaming kites and explosives-laden balloons into Israel and tolerating the occasional rocket attack, all in hopes of drawing concessions and easing the blockade.

This strategy has had only limited success but repeatedly put Netanyahu in uncomfortable situations.

Netanyahu came under tough criticism several months ago when he allowed Qatar, a key behind the scenes mediator, to deliver millions of dollars of humanitarian aid to Gaza in cash-stuffed suitcases through an Israeli border crossing. The money was badly needed to ease the dire living conditions in Gaza.

And every outbreak of violence draws renewed attention to the flawed policy of an Israeli leader who has made security the hallmark of his election campaign.

The recent rocket attack marred a visit by Netanyahu to Washington, where he was invited to the White House to celebrate the U.S. recognition of Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights. He then planned a campaign-style speech to the pro-Israel AIPAC lobbying group. Instead, the Golan announcement was overshadowed by the fighting in Gaza, and Netanyahu had to cut short the visit and rush back to Israel.

“This rocket was bad for Netanyahu,” said Gideon Rahat, professor of political science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “This conflict right now does not play into his hands.”

Speaking to AIPAC by satellite on Tuesday, Netanyahu put on a tough face, saying Israel had pounded Hamas on a scale not seen since a 2014 war. “I can tell you, we are prepared to do a lot more,” he said.

But in Israel, such claims are greeted with skepticism after so many rounds of fighting.

“The residents are angry that this has been continuing for a year. They want quiet and a normal life,” said Gadi Yarkoni, leader of the Eshkol regional council in southern Israel.

After failing to capitalize on a series of corruption allegations against Netanyahu, his opponents are sure to step up the criticism of his Gaza policy in the final stretch of the campaign.

The centrist Blue and White Party, which is running neck and neck with Netanyahu’s Likud, is led by Benny Gantz, a popular former military chief who led the army through wars against Hamas in 2012 and 2014. Two other ex-military chiefs are in the party’s top ranks.

“If you are looking for deterrence, look to the people who brought the deterrence to Israel and led the army in times like this,” Lapid said.

Whether this strategy can work remains to be seen. Netanyahu’s rivals have offered various alternatives that have no guarantee of success.

Lapid called on Israel to resume its policy of “targeted assassinations” of Hamas leaders, a tactic that in the past unleashed heavy fighting.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the ultranationalist New Right party, called for even tougher action and for Israel to wipe out Hamas’ entire leadership and military capabilities.

Speaking on Channel 12 TV, Bennett said Israel must “chase down every Hamas commander, from the chief to the platoon commander and the foot soldier. Just kill, kill these people, destroy their homes on a scale they don’t know.”

Such an operation, he said, would take months to complete. It also would carry a heavy price for both Hamas and the Israeli military.

Aron Shaviv, a political consultant and former strategist for Netanyahu, said the Israeli leader is “caught between a rock and a hard place.”

He said that if Netanyahu responds forcefully in Gaza now, voters will wonder why he took a more cautious approach in the past four years.

“He would have a hard time explaining why he has changed his approach and why an attack on central Israel warrants a harsh response versus an attack on southern Israel,” he said.

Fortunately for Netanyahu, he said Blue and White leaders have “failed miserably” to capitalize on their security credentials so far. He said alienated right-wing voters are likely to support other hard-line parties that would end up joining Netanyahu in a coalition in any case.

In Gaza, meanwhile, Hamas is likely to continue to test Netanyahu until election day on April 9.

“Hamas is trying to press Netanyahu ahead of the elections to lift the blockade,” said Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a pro-Hamas writer in Gaza. “This equation gives Hamas leverage that it can use against him. So I think escalation or calm will greatly affect the Israeli elections.”</s>KFAR SABA, Israel (AP) — An early morning rocket fired from the Gaza Strip demolished a house in central Israel on Monday, wounding seven people and prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a trip to Washington. The military quickly mobilized troops and called up reserves, setting the stage for a potential major conflagration shortly before Israel’s upcoming elections.

The rocket destroyed a residential home in the farming community of Mishmeret, north of the city of Kfar Saba, wounding six members of a family. The Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people overall, including two women who were moderately wounded. The others, including two children and an infant, had minor wounds.

The sounds of air raid sirens jolted residents of the Sharon area, northeast of Tel Aviv, from their sleep shortly after 5 a.m., sending them scurrying to bomb shelters. A strong sound of an explosion followed.

The Israeli military said militants from Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement fired the rocket from one of their launching pads in southern Gaza Strip, near Rafah. Maj. Mika Lifshitz, a military spokeswoman, said it was a self-manufactured rocket with a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles). She added that two armor and infantry brigades were being mobilized to the Gaza front and that a limited drafting of reserves was also taking place.

“There has been a criminal attack on the State of Israel and we will respond forcefully,” he said. “In a few hours I will meet with President Trump. I will return to Israel immediately afterward.”

Anticipating a strong Israeli response, Gaza’s Hamas leaders have apparently gone underground. Witnesses reported seeing Hamas evacuating its personnel from government premises. Hamas also announced that its Gaza chief, Yehiya Sinwar, had cancelled a scheduled public speech. Israel also shut down its main crossings into Gaza and imposed restrictions on fishing off the Gazan coast.

Monday’s attack came 10 days after rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel’s densely populated commercial capital of Tel Aviv. The Israeli military at the time struck back and the sides appeared to be hurtling toward another confrontation. But Gaza’s Hamas leaders said the rocket was fired accidently and calm was quickly restored.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday’s attack, but it would seem to be much harder to dismiss the latest incident as another misfire.

A possible trigger could be a prison riot late Sunday when Hamas-affiliated prisoners stabbed an Israeli guard in the neck in southern Israel. Israeli guards moved in to subdue the rioters, wounding about a dozen prisoners, three of them seriously. In a statement, Hamas called for an end to the crackdown.

“We do not yet have a full understanding of who exactly ordered the firing of the rocket,” said Eran Lerman, a former deputy director at Israel’s National Security Council. “But clearly this is no longer something that can be explained away as a mistake or a technical failure.”

Gaza is controlled by Hamas, an Islamic militant Palestinian group that seeks Israel’s destruction and possesses a large arsenal of rockets and missiles capable of striking deep inside Israel. The territory is home to other Palestinian militant groups, including Islamic Jihad, an Iranian-backed armed organization that also has a formidable rocket arsenal.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies and have fought three wars since the group seized power in the strip in 2007. Smaller flare-ups have occurred sporadically since Israel and Hamas fought their last war in 2014. Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for all fire coming out of the coastal territory.

The outburst comes at a sensitive time for both sides. Israel is holding national elections in 15 days. Netanyahu, who also served as defense minister, is locked in a tight fight for re-election and has faced heavy criticism from his opponents for what they say has been an ineffective response to Gaza militants.

“Israel’s deterrence has collapsed, and it has to be said in all honesty Netanyahu has failed against Hamas,” said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Yamin HeHadash faction in Netanyahu’s coalition. “Netanyahu is a good prime minister but a failed defense minister.”

In Gaza, Hamas has come under rare public criticism for the harsh conditions in the territory. An Israel-Egyptian blockade, combined with sanctions by the rival Palestinian Authority and mismanagement by the Hamas government have fueled an economic crisis. The territory’s residents have little desire for another war with Israel.

Egypt, Qatar and United Nations are trying to broker a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas but that effort has yet to bring about an agreement. At the same time, there has been an uptick in violence in the West Bank over the past week, with a stabbing and shooting attack that left two Israelis dead near a West Bank settlement and Israel’s killing of two Palestinians it said attacked troops.
Acording to Israel Today, a senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed that Iran's rulers ordered the rocket attack on Mishmeret in central Israel on March 25, 2019, which injured seven Israelis. The rocket attack was carried out by Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, which is heavily financed by Iran. The Hamas official said that Hamas's goal was to hurt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chances of getting reelected in the April 9 elections.