Rockets fired into southern Israel from Egypt's Sinai

Two rockets, apparently fired by Islamic militants in Egypt’s northern Sinai, have landed in southern Israel. The attack came a day after an Isis affiliate claimed that several of its members had been killed by an Israeli drone.

The incident is the second within the space of a month after four missiles were fired towards the Israeli Red Sea city of Eilat, suggesting an increase in tensions on Israel’s southern border.

The launches are the first time since 2015 that rockets have been fired at Israel from Egypt.

“Earlier today, projectiles launched from the Sinai Peninsula hit an open area in the Eshkol regional council,” the army said in a statement on Monday. “No injuries have been reported. Forces are searching the area.”

Photographs in the Israeli media showed homemade rockets constructed from metal piping.

The two rockets were fired a day after the Isis-aligned Amaq News reported the death of four fighters in an Israeli drone strike. They were reportedly planning to launch missiles.

According to the report, the four were travelling in a vehicle in a Sinai village near Egyptian Rafah on the border with Gaza. A Palestinian from Gaza was reportedly among those killed in the strike.

On 9 February, a volley of rockets from Sinai targeted the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat, with three intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defence system and the fourth exploding outside the city.

Isis claimed responsibility for the Eilat attack. The group said it had been launched “in order to teach the Jews and the crusaders a proxy war will not avail them of anything”, and threatened future “calamitous” attacks.

After the Eilat attack two Palestinians were killed in the Sinai by what the Islamist Hamas movement said was an Israeli airstrike.

Egypt is one of just two Arab countries that have signed a peace treaty with the Jewish state. Isis has been waging a deadly insurgency against Egyptian security forces in the Sinai but it rarely attempts attacks against Israel.

It is unclear what has prompted the recent rocket launches against Israel amid an ongoing conflict between the Egyptian military and militants in the north of the Sinai peninsula.