Palestinian Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has informed Egyptian security officials that a rocket attack that hit a house north of Tel Aviv today and wounded seven people was accidental.
Palestinian media reported that Hamas told Egyptian intermediaries, apparently in an attempt to convey a message to Israel, that it would launch an investigation into the incident and insisted that it had not ordered the attack.
Israeli officials, however, believe the Islamic extremist organization ordered the attack, which came ten days after a similar attack in Tel Aviv, to test Israel's response during the election campaign, according to Israeli Hebrew-language media.
When two rockets were fired at Tel Aviv, there were no injuries or damage, and Israel responded with airstrikes on 100 targets in Gaza.
The violence soon stopped after it was determined that the rockets had been fired by mistake during maintenance work.
Israeli military spokesman Ronen Manelis said the rocket was fired early this morning from a Hamas position in southern Gaza in the town of Rafah. He did not respond to claims that it happened by accident.
"We do not comment on our intelligence assessments at this time," Manelis said.
The Israeli military declined to directly answer why air defense systems did not intercept the missile, but suggested that the Iron Dome battery had not yet been deployed in the area.
It was also said that the J80 rocket was produced by Hamas and had a range of 120 kilometers.
After the attack, Palestinian extremist organizations began evacuating their positions across the Gaza Strip in anticipation of Israeli counterstrikes.
Israeli officials told reporters that retaliation for the rocket attack was certain but appeared to have been delayed by Egypt's efforts to broker a ceasefire and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington.
Netanyahu cut that visit short and will return, as he said, right after today's meeting with US President Donald Trump, and it was planned to stay until March 27.
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