ANKARA 

Two rockets launched from the Gaza Strip exploded near the Kerem Shalom settlement on Saturday, according to Israeli media.

The daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that “two rockets exploded in the last hour in an open area near the Kerem Shalom settlement adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip.”

No alarm was triggered in the area, it added, without providing any further details.

No Palestinian factions have claimed responsibility for the rocket launches.

Kerem Shalom is located in the so-called Eshkol Regional Council (which includes 32 settlements around Gaza), near the Palestinian city of Rafah, and serves as a frontline area for Israeli forces entering Gaza.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

More than 37,800 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 86,800 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Ikram Kouachi