Rockets from Gaza follow Biden's visit to Israel, West Bank

No sooner did U.S. President Joe Biden take off from his visit to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders than four rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip just hours later after midnight on Saturday.

Sirens sounded across southern Israel from the Gaza border up to Ashkelon forcing many residents to sleep in shelters. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

But the Israel Defense Forces responded by destroying a site it says is used to produce rockets in Gaza – a strike which will seriously impact the ability of local terror groups to make and launch more such weapons.

“IDF fighter jets struck a military site in the central Gaza Strip belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization,” the IDF said in a statement. “The military site consists of an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets. The site that was targeted is one of the most significant production sites in the Gaza Strip for rockets used by terror organizations.”

The army said its strike “will significantly impede and undermine Hamas' force-building capabilities.”

In Israel’s weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid said that the targets were struck “on a magnitude that they were not prepared for.”

“This government's policy has not changed. We will respond quickly, forcefully and without hesitation to every launch and every incendiary balloon,” he said.

“From here, all of us, all members of the government, send a big hug to the children of the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip who slept in protected spaces Friday night,” he added.

Biden had spent the morning and early afternoon meeting with Palestinian leaders in both East Jerusalem and Bethlehem. He departed from Israel at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Friday afternoon. Israeli leaders were on hand for his historic send off to Saudi Arabia on a direct flight to Jeddah – the first in that direction.

During his stay in the Middle East, which wrapped up on Saturday, Biden announced that Saudi Arabia would open up its airspace to Israeli flights.

The White House said in a statement that the U.S. and Saudi announced “the strategic partnership between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States over the coming decades with the aim of advancing their mutual interests and advancing a common vision for a more peaceful, secure, prosperous and stable Middle East.”