Code Red Sirens in Israel May Signal Hamas is Testing Rockets
by Tzvi Zucker / Tazpit News Agency
On Sunday morning, at 7:15 local time, Code Red sirens sounded along the Gaza and Sinai borders in Israel’s south. The IDF immediately declared the sirens were false alarms, saying that they were due to malfunctions in the warning system.
It is worth noting that Code Red alarms are linked to rockets being launched – if the system picks up a launch, the sirens will sound, even if the rockets launched do not land in Israeli territory. Since the end of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has continued to test-fire its homemade rockets, firing them into the Mediterranean and into the Sinai desert in Egypt, where it has spotters. It is possible that the sirens were tripped by such test launches.
In September, after Operation Protective Edge, there were five Code Red rocket sirens, which according to the army were triggered by light weapons fire inside the Gaza Strip. So far in October, there have been three Code Red rocket sirens in areas bordering the Gaza Strip.