Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired a mortar shell that hit the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel on Sunday night, causing no casualties or damage.

“A mortar shell fired from Gaza exploded in an open area near the southern part of the Strip,” an IDF spokeswoman told AFP.

Last Wednesday, a projectile fired from Gaza hit southern Israel, also causing no injuries or damage, in the first attack from the Hamas-controlled territory since August 18.

On August 14, terrorists from Gaza fired two rockets at southern Israel. One rocket exploded in an open area, and reports said that a second rocket exploded within Gaza. There were no physical injuries or damages.

An IAF aircraft later targeted concealed rocket launchers in northern Gaza.

The Sunday attack came the same day Israel began allowing deliveries of cement and steel for use by the private sector into Gaza for the first time in some six years.

The Israeli move to allow 70 trucks of construction materials a day into the region was a gesture to Hamas rival Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, with whom peace talks with Israel have been recently renewed.

Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers constantly claim that the region is under an “Israeli siege”, ignoring the fact that Israel continuously allows humanitarian aid and other materials into Gaza and has approved hundreds of internationally funded and monitored projects in Gaza.

In fact, it is Hamas itself that tries to punish the residents of Gaza by attempting to reduce the scope of Israeli goods entering the region. Hamas does this because it is angry that Israel and the Palestinian Authority cooperate over what is transferred into Gaza, ignoring Hamas which rules the region with an iron fist.