This morning, at 7:15 local time, Code Red sirens sounded along the Gaza and Sinai borders in Israel’s south. The IDF immediately declared the sirens were false alarms, saying that they were due to malfunctions in the warning system.
It is worth noting that Code Red alarms are linked to rockets being launched – if the system picks up a launch, the sirens will sound, even if the rockets launched do not land in Israeli territory. Since the end of Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has continued to test-fire its homemade rockets, firing them into the Mediterranean and into the Sinai desert in Egypt, where it has spotters. It is possible that the sirens this morning were tripped by such test launches. This would not be the first time since the end of Operation Protective Edge that Hamas has test-fired missiles; two weeks ago, Hamas was reported to have test-fired some of its homemade missiles into the Mediterranean. At the same time as that test-fire, sirens went off in towns located inside the Gaza Envelope inside of Israel. As early as October 2nd, the World Tribune reported that Israeli military sources have said they are aware of these tests, saying they are homemade variants of the M-302 missile used during the last war to reach Haifa. These sources also identified the former Israeli settlement of Netzarim, located in the Gaza Strip, as the missile launch site for some of the test-firing.
In September, post-Operation Protective Edge, there were five Color Red rocket sirens, which according to the army were triggered by light weapons’ fire inside the Gaza Strip. So far in October, there have been three Color Red rocket sirens in areas bordering the Gaza Strip.