By Turgut Alp Boyraz
JERUSALEM
A rocket warning siren that went off in Hof Ashkeln near the border with the Gaza Strip on Monday was a false alarm, an Israeli army official has said.
"It was a false alarm. There is nothing," an army official, asking not to be named, told Anadolu Agency.
Tensions remain high in the region following Israel's recent 51-day military offensive against Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip.
The offensive, initially launched with the stated aim of ending rocket fire from the coastal enclave, finally ended on August 26 with the signing of an open-ended cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian resistance factions.
The offensive left some 2,147 Palestinians dead and more than 11,000 injured – the vast majority of them civilians – while partially or completely destroying thousands of residential structures across the territory.
According to Israeli figures, 67 Israeli soldiers and five civilians were killed over the course of the operation – the highest military death toll suffered by Israel since it lost 119 troops in its 2006 war on Lebanon.
In 2008/09, over 1,500 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza Strip during Israel's three-week-long "Operation Cast Lead."
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