JERUSALEM

The Israeli army said late Friday that in-coming rocket sirens were activated in the Sderot area in southern Israel, as a barrage of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip.

The Times of Israel news website cited an official in the municipality who said at least eight rockets were fired from Gaza toward Sderot and surrounding areas.

It added that some rockets were intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome air defense system, and no casualties have been reported.

The Islamic Jihad group said in a statement that its fighters fired a salvo of rockets toward Sderot and Israeli settlements around Gaza.

Despite the decline in the rockets being fired from Gaza in the last few months as a result of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza, Palestinian groups have still announced from time to time rockets from Gaza.

Israel has waged a military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas which killed around 1,200 people.

More than 33,600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the war began.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the seaside enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while much of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has urged it to do more to prevent famine in Gaza.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar