Two lightly injured when rocket hits building in Rishon Lezion; another projectile seriously wounds one person in Ashkelon. IAF warns northern Gaza residents to evacuate

communities persisted on Tuesday, the IDF continued to gear towards a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Two people were lightly injured when a rocket hit a six-storey building in Rishon Lezion. Four others suffered panic attacks. An air raid siren sounded in the central Israeli city around 6 pm.

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"We heard a blast," Naor Eini, a resident of the nearby Holon, told Ynet. "We look out of the window and saw smoke. We haven't heard the siren here."

Direct hit in Rishon Lezion (Photo: Avi Moalem)

The rocket attack (Photo: Asi Amar)

Rocket damage in Rishon (Photo: Naor Eini)

A short while earlier, one Israeli was seriously wounded when a rocket hit a house in Ashkelon, and seven were lightly injured by a rocket barrage that was fired on the southern city of Ashdodaround 4 pm. Three of the victims in Ashdod were hurt when a projectile hit a store in a commercial center, while the others were injured when a rocket exploded in an open area in the city. Another salvo was fired on the Eshkol Regional Council, hitting open areas and failing to cause injuries or damage.

The owner of the store that was hit in Ashdod said that his customers and employees ran for cover when they heard the air raid siren.

"My entire store was destroyed and my car was totaled," he said.

Store damaged in Ashdod (Photo: Noam Dvir)

Meanwhile, the army airdropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip's northern neighborhoods in the afternoon, warning residents to evacuate the region, an IDF official told Ynet. The Al-Arabiya news network reported that residents of the Strip's southern and eastern neighborhoods received similar instructions.

IAF aircraft struck a Hamas operative trying to fire an antitank missile towards Israel from Gaza's Dhaniya Airport. A direct hit was identified. According to the IDF, it was the third time in two hours that terrorists attempted fire antitank missiles on Israeli civilians and troops. The IAF has also bombed a Hamas operative while he was trying to launch a rocket.

Leaflets scattered in Gaza

Earlier Tuesday, a rocket was fired from Gaza toward Jerusalem for the second time since Operation Pillar of Defensebegan. The projectile hit an open area in Gush Etzion. Minutes before the siren sounded in the capital, six people were injured in two rocket attacks on the Eshkol Regional Council.

The siren went off in Jerusalem just as Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was on the phone with his Japanese counterpart, Koichiro Gemba. Lieberman was forced to cut the conversation short and seek shelter.

Returning the call after the rocked had hit, Lieberman asked Gemba to try and imagine a situation in which he was sitting in the foreign ministry in Tokyo and had to leave a meeting or disrupt a phone call due to a rocket attack. He said that the operation in Gaza was imperative.

The foreign minister later met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was at the Ben Gurion Airport at the time of the siren.

Lieberman thanked the secretary-general for his efforts to bring about peace to the region. However, the foreign minister said that the public outcry against an Israeli ground offensive in the Strip are empowering Hamas and prolonging the hostilities.

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