Police at the site of Sunday’s rocket-landing in Sderot. Photo: Israel Police.

The rocket that landed in the back yard of a home in southern Israel on Sunday “means nothing militarily,” but re-opens barely healed emotional wounds of a traumatized population, an official told The Algemeiner, shortly after police reported that no casualties or property damage had been incurred.

Alon Schuster, the head of the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council, said, “For the past 15 years, we have been experiencing such incidents of sporadic fire. Of course, we’re in a conflict-ridden area,” near the Gaza border. “But, luckily, nothing happened this time, and it was not even perpetrated by Hamas, which is trying not to escalate things at the moment. The rocket was launched by hooligan groups, disobeying the terrorist organization that runs Gaza, letting Hamas bear the brunt of Israeli retaliation.”

Schuster, whose purview includes Sderot – the city that was hit by Sunday’s rocket — was referring to the act of aggression, which Palestinian media attributed to the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The same Palestinian sources reported that the IDF retaliated by striking Hamas targets in northeastern Gaza, near Beit Hanoun.

Schuster said that though sporadic fire is par for the course, “The area has been very quiet in the last two years,” since Operation Protective Edge, the war that Israel fought against Hamas in Gaza. Prior to and during the 50-day operation, hundreds of rockets were fired into Israeli population centers.

According to IDF data, Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists have fired more than 11,000 rockets into Israel. In 2016, there have been 14 sporadic attacks.