A rocket was launched from Gaza at southern Israel on Saturday evening, Passover Eve, triggering sirens in several open areas near southern border towns.
The military said it successfully intercepted the rocket.
Following the launch, the IDF’s Arabic spokesperson called on residents of six neighborhoods in central Gaza’s Nuseirat area, from which the rocket was fired, to evacuate, saying strikes were incoming.
The practice has become standard throughout the war.
“This is a final advance warning before the attack!” Col. Avichay Adraee’s post said. “We will attack with great force every area from which rockets are launched… For your safety, you must move immediately south to the known shelters in Al Mawasi.”
Earlier on Saturday, three rockets launched from Gaza at the border community of Nir Yitzhak were intercepted by air defenses. The rocket fire set off alerts in open areas but not in any towns. No one was hurt.
In response to the rocket fire, the IDF issued an evacuation order for the Khan Younis area.
#عاجل إلى جميع سكان قطاع غزة المتواجدين في منطقة النصيرات وفي الأحياء: الايمان، التقوى، البساتين، الزهراء، البوادي، النزهة
????هذا انذار مسبق وأخير قبل الهجوم!????
سنهاجم بقوة شديدة كل منطقة يتم إطلاق قذائف صاروخية منها.
تتحمل المنظمات الارهابية وفي مقدمتها حماس المسؤولية… pic.twitter.com/dOjCRllrGG
— افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) April 12, 2025
Also on Saturday, the Israel Defense Forces said it had completed the seizure of the Morag Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip, cutting off the city of Rafah from Khan Younis.
The military said Rafah was now surrounded by its forces, with the 36th Division holding the Morag Corridor and the Gaza Division operating in the Philadelphi Corridor along the Egypt-Gaza border area.
Defense Minister Israel Katz called on Palestinians to “remove Hamas and release all the hostages” before the military further expands its operations in the Strip.
“This is the final moment to remove Hamas and release the hostages and bring about an end to the war,” Katz said. “Intensive IDF activity will soon expand to additional places in most of Gaza, and you will have to evacuate the combat zones.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, when some 5,000 Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are still holding 59 hostages — 24 of whom are believed to be alive, and 35 of whom have been confirmed dead — including 58 of those abducted on October 7.
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel assesses it has killed about 20,000 combatants in Gaza as of January, as well as some 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the Hamas onslaught.
Israel’s toll in the Gaza ground offensive and military operations along the border stands at 410.
It’s not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we’ll remove all ads from your page and you’ll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You’re a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel – to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘272776440645465’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);
