If they stop firing, we’ll stop responding, say security sources following emergency consultations; school and factory hit in Sderot; air force strikes series of terrorist targets

File photo of the southern Israeli city of Sderot (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)

Gaza-based terrorists fired 25 rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, causing damage to a school and factory. The latest attacks bring the total number of rockets and other projectiles fired from the Strip to approximately 150 over the past six days.

Israeli security chiefs held a series of emergency consultations on Saturday — including a meeting of defense chiefs with Defense Minister Ehud Barak — and decided to try to avoid a further escalation of hostilities. Amid reports from Gaza Saturday night that Hamas was now seeking a ceasefire, security sources said “quiet will be met with quiet, but further rocket fire will be met with further fire [from Israel].” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was also involved in the consultations.

The sources said Israel had no interest in a major military response to the upsurge in rocket fire, given the current sensitivities in the region including the tension surrounding Egypt’s elections, the ongoing violence in Syria and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Israel this week.

A senior IDF official also speculated that Hamas wants to stop an escalation of hostilities in Gaza. He said that the group aims to prevent the launching of long-range rockets, despite pressure from other Islamist groups in Gaza to act otherwise. He summed up the nature of the ceasefire terms as “Quiet met by quiet, and fire met by fire.”

As of Saturday night, plans were for schools in the South to open as usual Sunday, provided there was no further escalation.

The majority of the rockets launched Saturday were aimed at the southern city of Sderot, but several landed in other parts of the Eshkol, Hof Ashkelon and Shaar Hanegev Regional Councils, which border the Strip.

One of the rockets exploded in Sderot’s industrial zone, causing moderate-to-severe injuries to one man and damaging a factory.

According to Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived at the scene, the 50-year-old man was hit in the neck by shrapnel from the explosion.

Another rocket caused damage to a school in Sderot, but there were no reports of injuries. The school had been reinforced against rocket fire.

Several area residents were treated for shock.

Iron Dome shot down 10 of the incoming rockets, according to Israel Radio.

Six of the rockets landed around neighboring Netivot.

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