Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, campaigning for his party’s primary, was evacuated Wednesday December 25 from an election rally in Ashkelon, southern Israel, following reports of imminent rocket fire from the Strip Gaza.
In a video broadcast by the public television channel Kan 11, Benjamin Netanyahu, during an election campaign for the legislative elections, greets the assembly made up of a hundred voters who are members of Likud after a security agent informed him of a "red alert". He is then evacuated with his wife Sara.
"A projectile was fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and was intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system," the army said in a short statement, adding that sirens sounded in particular in the city of 'Ashkelon, where the Prime Minister's meeting was held.
Regular attacks
Already in September, the Likud leader had been evacuated from a rally in the southern city of Ashdod, when sirens had announced rocket attacks.
Thursday, the members of his party are called to elect their new leader, as part of a primary demanded by the main rival of the Prime Minister, Gideon Saar, determined to steal his place.
On December 19 and 20, two rocket hits were fired from Gaza toward Israel, leaving no casualties, the army said.
The Israeli air force, in response, bombed twice installations of Hamas which directs the Palestinian enclave. Israel holds the Islamist movement responsible for all rocket fire from its territory, even though the Hebrew state also targets other Palestinian armed movements there.
Since 2008, Israel has waged three wars against Hamas and allied armed groups in Gaza, where two million Palestinians live in conflict, poverty and an Israeli blockade imposed for more than 10 years.
With AFP
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