Hamas Hamas attacks Israel's Ashkelon city with rocket, tells residents to leave in hours

Hamas today launched a barrage of rockets at the port city of Ashkelon - hours after the terrorists warned Israeli civilians living there to leave before 5pm or die in response to the airstrikes relentlessly pounding the Gaza strip. 

Video shows a series of rockets being fired at the city in southern Israel just after 5pm local time with residents being urged to shelter from the onslaught. 

Air raid sirens were heard across the city, with footage showing frantic parents picking up their young children before sprinting into an airport to take cover from the rocket attack. 

As Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida noted, the attack will be carried out “in response to the enemy’s crime of displacing our people”.

According to the Palestinian organization, the aim is “to force Israelis to leave their homes in various areas of the Gaza Strip.”

Hamas also made known the time frame of the attack, wanting to warn the residents of the area in order to limit civilian casualties.

“We give residents of the occupied city of Ashkelon a deadline to leave the area by 5 p.m.,” added the Abu Ubaidah statement.

Panicked civilians, many of whom were desperately trying to flee the carnage on flights, were seen cowering as the sound of shells exploding resounded around them. One woman cried: 'They've closed the doors. Oh my god, I am so scared, we heard a boom and now we wait and see, oh God.' 

Hamas' armed wing had warned residents of the city to leave before 5pm Israeli time or face death in response to the Israeli airstrikes that have destroyed thousands of Hamas targets and killed 770 Palestinians.  

It comes after Israel warned Hamas they had 'nowhere to hide' and that its air force was launching 'extensive attacks' on the Palestinian terrorist group every four hours in revenge for its deadly surprise incursion that saw more than 1,000 Israelis slaughtered.