Three mortars were fired from Gaza on Friday leading to an IDF retaliation. The Iron Dome system intercepted two mortars but a third landed inside Israel adjacent to a building in the Shaar Hanegev region, causing damage but no injuries were reported. The red alert interrupted a ceremony commemorating an IDF soldier killed in the 2014 IDF incursion into Gaza. At the time of the attack, the mortars were misidentified as rocket fire.

Israeli Air Force planes and IDF tanks targeted two Hamas sites in Gaza on Friday afternoon.  An IDF spokesperson on Saturday evening announced that IAF planes attacked a Hamas observation post in southern Gaza.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said in an interview with Hadashot News on Saturday night that the mortars fired at Israel were supplied by Iran.

Liberman said the Islamic Republic has supplied such weaponry to a number of terror groups in the Gaza Strip in the past, and therefore it was “too early” to identify the exact source of the shelling.

An IDF spokesperson issued a statement on Saturday night echoing the minister’s statement.

“The severe shooting on Friday proved once again that Iran, through rogue and extremist terrorist organizations, is acting to bring about a deterioration in the regional situation,” the IDF Spokesperson said.

Iran is “playing with the lives of Gaza residents and is likely to lead the Gaza Strip to escalation after years of security calm,” the IDF Spokesperson added. “Hamas has full responsibility for the situation and its implications.”