Israeli Police Says Gaza Rocket Was 'False Alarm'

An Israeli police spokesman told Agence France Presse that contrary to an earlier announcement, no rocket was fired by Palestinian militants in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip at Israel on Thursday.

"There was no rocket in the end -- it was a false alarm," Micky Rosenfeld said.

Earlier, Rosenfeld had told AFP "a rocket was fired out of Gaza Strip," noting that "it landed in the Negev region".

The last incident of cross-border fire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza was on June 24, when the radical Islamic Jihad group fired five rockets at Israel, which retaliated with air strikes.

As the ruling authority in Gaza, Hamas is responsible for ensuring that militant groups respect the terms of the truce brokered by Egypt, which ended a major eight-day confrontation with Israel in November.