Rocket Launched From Gaza Forces Israel PM To Evacuate Election Rally

KEY POINTS

A Rocket was fired from Gaza Strip to Ashkelon
Netanyahu was holding a campaign rally at the city
No casualties were reported in the incident

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to be hustled from a stage during election rally Wednesday after a rocket was fired from the Gaza strip to the southern territory in Israel where the rally was being held.

Netanyahu took shelter briefly but resumed the event later on.

Ashkelon, which is 7.5 miles from the Gaza strip was the target of the rocket, which was intercepted by Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, according to the Israel military.

The coastal Palestinian enclave did not immediately claim responsibility for the attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was escorted off stage by bodyguards after a rocket from the Gaza Strip was launched at the city of Ashkelon where he was speaking at a campaign rally https://t.co/0UJklI1pI2 pic.twitter.com/2acTIxwADq
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 26, 2019

For starters, Netanyahu was campaigning to keep the helm of his conservative Likud party, Reuters reported. The primaries of the internal election were just hours away when the incident took place. Israeli TV stations showed videos of Netanyahu and his wife slowly walking off the stage flanked by guards as the sirens went off.

Resuming the event, Netanyahu made a veiled threat to the people responsible for the attack. “Whoever tried to make an impression just now should pack his bags,” Reuters quoted him saying.

Early Thursday, airstrikes were carried out at three military bases of Hamas Islamists, which currently controls the Gaza strip, by Israeli fighter jets and helicopters, AP News reported. The sites were empty and no casualties were reported.

Israel’s military made no comments on the attack.

A similar incident occurred in September when Netanyahu’s appearance in the nearby town of Ashdod was disrupted by a rocket siren.

The Prime Minister, who faces a tough battle ahead of the March general elections, came under attack from his political rivals for not being able to stem the attack from Gaza.

“The situation in which Israeli citizens live at the mercy of terrorists and the prime minister of Israel is unable to tour parts of his country is a badge of shame on the security policy in the south - and a loss of deterrence that no sovereign country can accept,” Netanyahu’s centrist rival Benny Gantz said in a statement Wednesday.