Israel killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s rocket force and his deputy in an operation wherein 30 people have died in Gaza including women and children, while Palestinian cross-border rocket firing caused the first fatality in Israel on Thursday. The fresh conflict is now in its third day. While Egypt tried to mediate, neither side appears to be ready to end the worst escalation since August.
“We are at the height of a campaign, both offensive and defensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement issued during a visit to an air base, as quoted by Reuters. “Whoever comes to harm us - his blood is forfeit,” he remarked.
The number of senior figures from Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad killed since Israel began striking Gaza early on Tuesday reached five with the killing of Ali Ghali and Ahmed Abu Daqqa. According to a Reuters report, two gunmen from a splinter group died in a separate strike on Thursday, their identities were not immediately clear. Meanwhile, four women and six children have also died.
Sires Set Off As Far North As Israel’s Tel Aviv
In the assault, Islamic Jihad, the second-biggest armed group in Gaza after the ruling Hamas Islamists, kept firing rockets. “We will not retreat and the assassinations will only make us stronger. Our revenge continues,” it said in a communique, as quoted by Reuters.
The hundreds of rockets launched set off sirens as far north as the Israeli city Tel Aviv. Some 1.5 million Israelis - 16% of the population - have been ordered to go into shelters, military spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said, as per the report.
According to the military, Iron Dome and David’s Sling interceptors have shot down 96% of rockets engaged. However, one hit a residential building in Rehovot on Thursday and medics said an elderly man was killed, the first person killed in Israel in the latest round of fighting, and five other people were wounded, the report mentioned.
Both sides are in blockaded Gaza, where residents have been experiencing decades of a worsening humanitarian crisis, while surrounding Israeli towns, schools and businesses remained shut.
Israel has kept the movement of people and goods closed since Tuesday while its authorities estimated that between 30% and 60% of communities around Gaza have evacuated as a precaution.
At least 80 people were injured in the air strikes that destroyed five buildings and damaged more than 300 apartments, said Salama Marouf, chairman of the media office for Hamas, the group that rules the densely populated coastal territory of Gaza.
Israel’s military claimed that over 100 rockets, many of them improvised, had fallen short, killing four Palestinians, including a 10-year-old girl. Islamic Jihad denied that.
According to the Israeli military, it arrested 25 people in the occupied West Bank associated with Islamic Jihad.
Israel And Islamic Jihad’s Violent Clash
After over a year of resurgent Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners since January, the latest escalation drew international calls for a ceasefire.
Islamic Jihad opposes coexistence with Israel and aims for its destruction. For a truce, it demands an end to Israeli strikes against its leaders, a step ruled out by Israel.
“We have resumed the ‘elimination’ policy - big time,” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Channel 12 TV, as per the report. “If and when we enter a ceasefire, it won’t be with preconditions,” he said.
As per Reuters, Israel appeared to hope that Islamic Jihad, depleted of rockets and commanders, would halt hostilities unilaterally
Mohammad Abu el-Subbah, 24, outside a bakery in Gaza City told Reuters: “We can’t sleep at night because we worry about bombardment.” “People have no clue what will happen next, whether there will be a truce or the war will continue,” he said.
Egypt’s Efforts To Calm Things Down Have Not Yet Borne Fruit: Egyptian Foreign Minister
“Egypt’s efforts to calm things down and resume the political process have not yet borne fruit,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters, as quoted by Reuters. Shoukry urged “peace-sponsoring countries to intervene and stop the attacks” and said Israel must “stop the unilateral measures that aim to destroy the future of the Palestinian state.”
Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, areas Palestine wants for an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in a 1967 war. Israeli forces and settlers pulled out from Gaza in 2005. Statehood talks have been in a stalemate since 2014.