Palestinian fighters on Thursday detonated a bomb along the northern border of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and launched a mortar shell at an IDF unit operating along the southern border of the territory, developments that the Jerusalem Post contextualized alongside new figures that show that there has been an uptick in rocket attacks in 2014:

Meanwhile, figures for rocket attacks for 2014 confirm what residents of the South have been feeling for months, that a major upsurge in projectile attacks has occurred this year.

More than 100 rockets, most of them fired by Islamic Jihad in heavy salvos in March, were launched at Israel since the start of this year. In 2013, during the same period, from January to April 24, nine rocket attacks were reported.

Palestinian media outlets noted that the device was “apparently targeting patrolling Israeli soldiers.” Thursday also saw the discovery of two additional bombs that had been planted along the territory’s southern border with Israel.

The incidents came a day after the Israelis had targeted what Reuters – conveying Israeli military reports – described as “a militant riding on a motorcycle in northern Gaza, from where rockets are often shot at Israel.” Missiles and rockets had also been directed at Israeli troops and population centers on Monday, drawing both retaliatory and suppression fire that reportedly wounded four Hamas members. Those barrages, in turn, had been preceded by an attack on Sunday in which Palestinians detonated a bomb near an Israeli patrol and launched at least seven rockets into Israel.

The Washington Post read the escalation against the backdrop of a more general uptick in rocket and missile fire, noting that “Gaza militants fired the heaviest barrages” in March since Israel’s November 2012 Pillar of Defense campaign, during which Israeli forces decimated much of Hamas’s advanced arsenal and its command and control infrastructure.

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