Iron Dome newly installed near Eilat. Photo. Screenshot

JNS.org – Hours after a Grad rocket was intercepted by an Israeli Iron Dome battery in the southern city of Eilat for the first time, a Salafi Palestinian terror organization claimed responsibility for the attack. The group claimed the rocket attack was in retaliation for a weekend drone strike, attributed to Israel by foreign media, which killed four Palestinian terrorists as they were readying to launch a rocket into Israel.

The Salafi group—The Mojahideen Shura Council Environs of Jerusalem—which operates in Sinai and the Gaza Strip, issued a statement on Tuesday saying, “We bombed Umm al-Rashrash (the Arabic name for Eilat) with a Grad rocket was a rapid response to the crime committed by Jews recently, in which four jihadi fighters were killed by drone in Sinai.”

The organization went on to issue threats, saying, “The Mojahideen have infused fear and awe into the hearts of the criminal Jews who were forced to scurry into bomb shelters in the middle of the night. Some of them got scared and announced that three rockets had been fired, and some of them were intercepted.”

“We want to emphasize that Eilat and other Jewish cities will never enjoy security, tourism or a flourishing economy. The Jews will pay for the jihadi fighters who died in Sinai. Sinai will stand strong against Israeli aggression,” the statement said.

Security forces rushed to Eilat after loud explosions were heard over the city at 1 a.m. Tuesday. Preliminary investigations showed that the Grad rocket had been fired from the Sinai Peninsula as part of a salvo of rockets fired toward Eilat. The Iron Dome only intercepted the rocket that was calculated to have been heading toward a populated area. The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirmed that it was Iron Dome’s first successful interception in Eilat.

The rocket attack on Eilat came as Israel-Palestinian conflict negotiations were set to resume Wednesday in Jerusalem.