IDF soldiers patrolling along the border fence with Gaza fired into the air on Sunday night, to deter several Palestinian Authority Arabs who approached the fence.

An IDF statement said that the soldiers had called on the Arabs to back away and return to Gaza. When the Arabs refused to heed the calls, the soldiers fired into the air.

The IDF said that there were no known injuries among the Arabs, who likely took off after the shooting. Palestinian Authority-based media claimed that two Arabs suffered shock after the soldiers fired at them.

In another incident earlier on Sunday evening, two Gaza residents were caught by the IDF when they tried to infiltrate the Negev in the Kissufim area.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office said the two were unarmed. They were turned over to security services for interrogation.

Also on Sunday, for the first time since the end of Operation Pillar of Defense in November, Gaza-based terrorists fired a rocket at southern Israel.

The rocket apparently fell short of Israeli territory and exploded within Gaza. The Red Alert warning system did not sound.

The last time Gaza Arab terrorists fired rockets at Israel was on November 21, in the hours after the implementation of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Although technically those rockets were the first violations of the ceasefire, in which Hamas pledged not to fire rockets at Israel in return for Israeli concessions, Israel chose not to complain to the U.S. and Egypt, both of which had agreed to act as guarantors for the cease-fire.

Israel did not say Sunday evening whether or not it would file a complaint over the latest rocket firing.