The Iron Dome missile interceptor. Photo: IDF.

JNS.org – Four rockets were fired Wednesday night at the southern resort town of Eilat.

The Iron Dome defense system battery stationed in the city intercepted three projectiles, while the fourth exploded in an open area, causing no harm. A Sinai-based Salafi terrorist group affiliated with Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

Wednesday’s incident took place at 10:55 pm, as sirens wailed across the popular tourist city, sending residents and vacationers scrambling for shelter. Four people suffered shock and were treated in the city’s Yoseftal Medical Center.

Eilat police say they received over 300 calls from concerned citizens and alarmed tourists. Security forces canvassed the area for rocket fragments, one of which was later found in the pool of a local hotel.

On Thursday morning, the IDF adamantly denied Arab media reports alleging that the Israeli Air Force had struck a terror tunnel in the Rafah area, on the Gaza-Egypt border, following the rocket fire at Eilat.

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network quoted a Gaza Health ministry spokesman as saying that two people were “martyred” and five others injured in the alleged Israeli strike “along the Palestinian-Egyptian border.”

Palestinian media later quoted a security source as saying the casualties were the result of a blast inside the tunnel, which he admitted was used to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip.

The Egyptian military said Thursday that it had destroyed six tunnel openings on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border, and that 15 people were arrested during the operation.