In the dark of night — at 2:48 am — the Red Alert incoming rocket alert siren blared through the streets of Bat Yam, Holon, southern Tel Aviv and elsewhere in the region.
And then, silence. It took many minutes before Home Front Command woke up and responded with the information that the siren had awakened hundreds of thousands of Israelis in the middle of the night for no reason at all. False alarm.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in Gaza has been threatening retaliation against Israel over the deaths of its commander and operatives on Monday after they were killed in a terrorist tunnel that led from Khan Younis in the enclave, beneath the border with Israel, close to Kibbutz Kissufim.
The tunnel, which was still under construction, did not yet have an opening on the Israeli side. But the IDF found an advanced technology with which to destroy the tunnel in a planned, controlled detonation. Secondary explosions resulted from explosive material apparently stored within the tunnel. In addition to the terrorists killed in the tunnel collapse, others died and were injured after rushing in to rescue their fellow operatives. Tensions have run high since the incident.
A rocket alert siren close to three o’clock in the morning in communities on the outskirts of Tel Aviv certainly didn’t help matters.
In the meantime, social media sites were afire with the answers.
“IDF says it was a false alarm.”
“It was real?”
“Yes. . . right after the siren ended, [it] was [a] soft explosion so it must have been a bit off in [the] distance.”
“Aahh, fake azaka.” (alert siren)
“Go to sleep.”
“I heard it in Bat Yam. Can’t sleep now.”
“We understood it was a false alarm.”
“Really! Are you sure?”
“We heard it . . . Not fake at all.”
“Yeah, I heard the explosion too. Def not fake.”
“IDF spokesperson, the IDF can come to my house and please put my daughters to sleep!!!”
“If some moron fell asleep during his shift and pressed the button by mistake — I’ll kill him!”