A Palestinian rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit an Israeli army base early today and wounded 50 soldiers.
The Popular Resistance Committees and Islamic Jihad groups jointly claimed responsibility for the strike on Zikkim training base for new conscripts outside of Sderot.
Eleven soldiers were seriously wounded in the attack, another 39 were lightly injured, and several others were suffering from shock, the army said.
Today's attack marks the largest number of injuries ever sustained in a single Palestinian rocket attack and comes at a time when Israeli politicians and defence officials have been calling for a more aggressive Israeli response.
This morning, four Palestinian civilians were wounded by Israeli fire in northern Gaza, hospital officials said. The army said ground forces attacked the area where militants earlier launched the rocket that hit the base.
Sderot, a town of 22,000 near the Israel-Gaza border, and surrounding towns have been battered by thousands of missiles launched nearly daily from Gaza. The inaccurate rockets have killed 12 people in the past seven years, injured dozens more and disrupted daily life in the region.
