Islamic Jihad launches projectiles at areas near Jerusalem
For the first time since the start of the escalation that began this Tuesday, Islamic Jihad has launched projectiles against areas near Jerusalem, thus breaking 13 hours of calm that had multiplied hopes of an imminent truce under the mediation of Egypt, Qatar and the UN.. Two of the rockets directed at urban areas were neutralized by the Iron Dome and the rest fell mostly in open areas, so there were no injuries or deaths in the area, which also included parts of the southern West Bank, near Jerusalem.. In response to this surprise projectile attack in an area so remote and strategic that it is added to the one carried out at the same time and since then against Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, Israel informed Egypt that it was freezing contacts for a ceasefire that intensified in the last hours and is preparing for a “tough” military response against Islamic Jihad. One of the first actions of his Air Force has been to destroy the house of a jihadist leader in the south of Gaza and to kill in an attack against a flat in Gaza an operational manager of the armed wing of Jihad and his assistant.. In this way, Eyad Al-Hasani is the sixth leader of Al Quds Brigades hit by Israeli missiles in four days.
“The barrage of shells against the mountains of Jerusalem is a message that is important for all to understand.. What happens in Jerusalem is not separate from what happens in Gaza. We have surprised the enemy,” Islamic Jihad sources told Al Jazeera.
On Thursday afternoon and also for the first time since the start of Israel's offensive against the pro-Iranian Palestinian group, an Israeli citizen died from the impact of a projectile in a residential building in the city of Rehovot, in the center of the country, also causing a dozen injuries. It was part of the announced retaliation (dozens of projectiles) by the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, Al Quds Brigades, for the death of the chief (Ali Ghali) and number two (Ahmed Abu Dakka) of their projectile unit in two Jisulim – or the so-called “targeted killings” – carried out by the Israeli Air Force at dawn and at noon in the Gaza Strip.
31 Palestinians have been killed, including leaders and members of the Jihad and PFLP militias, and civilians (including six children) since the start of the operation Israel dubbed “Shield and Arrow” against Islamic Jihad four days ago.. In the initial attack on the Islamic Jihad leadership, the Air Force killed three leaders of its armed wing and 10 civilians (including several of their children and wives) who were near them in their homes.. The Israeli army claims that among the Palestinian civilians killed this week in the Gaza Strip, three children and a man died due to the impact of dud shells from Islamic Jihad that fell on Gazan territory.. According to their data, 25% of the more than 900 projectiles launched against Israel by this group, also considered a terrorist by the European Union and the US, among others, did not cross the border.
Following the first Israeli death by a Palestinian projectile in Israel, the Army intensified its already numerous attacks against Islamic Jihad commandos, bases, ringleaders and tunnels in one of the most densely populated areas in the world.. While waiting for a truce, the military official in the southern zone, Eliezer Toledano, called for “to continue the attacks against the terrorists and especially those responsible for Islamic Jihad who use the Palestinian civilian population as a defensive shield and continue to attack our citizens.”. However, last night the military and political leadership backed the truce after concluding that “all the objectives in the operation against Jihad were met.”
“We have attacked with rockets together with the military arm of the Resistance Committees (group) in response to the murders and the continuous aggression of the cowardly enemy that will not deter us,” reported the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, which has lost five leaders, after confirmed the impact of one of its long-range projectiles in Rehovot. “The enemy has acted stupidly with the assassination of our leaders. We are determined to take revenge,” his spokesman Abu Hamza warned while the PFLP has stated that five members of its armed wing have died at the beginning of the fourth day of escalation.
Egypt, which has condemned Israeli airstrikes, is trying to hammer out a truce that seemed like a given on Wednesday afternoon but has since backed away amid events on the ground.
As in two major escalations since 2019, the Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, does not intervene directly.. Israel and Egypt know, however, that it may have no choice but to do so if the fighting drags on for many more days, raising both the death toll and pressure from Islamic Jihad, which in turn is acting under pressure from its military patron and economic Iran, and the criticism of some sectors in Gaza that require it to activate its powerful armed wing.