2023-05-09 09:33:12
Israel has killed three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PYP) in heavy bombardments by some 40 Israeli Air Force planes and drones on Gaza early this morning, which also killed ten civilians and injured 20 more people. The recent attacks are part of the escalation of violence that followed the death of a YIP-linked political prisoner on hunger strike last week.
The Israeli Army confirmed the attacks against targets of the YIP and some of its leaders, “responsible for launching rockets into Israel in the last month”, such as Jalil Bahitini, Tareq Az Aldin and Jahed Ahnam, who were killed, as well as some of their relatives and neighbors, including women and children. According to the latest count of the Ministry of Health, the bombings left 13 “martyrs”, including 4 children and 4 women; as well as 20 injured, including 3 children and 7 women, and some in critical condition.
Israel kills four children and injures three more
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: “Any terrorist who harms Israeli citizens will regret it.” Israel’s army, in collaboration with the Shin Bet intelligence service, attacked Islamic Jihad leaders in Gaza in a “precise” operation, he added. Specifically, “the YIP commander in northern Gaza, a YIP leader responsible for directing activities in the West Bank from Gaza and the secretary of the YIP military council were eliminated,” the Army said on the Bahitini. , Aldin and Ahnam, respectively.
According to the same source, Jahed Ahnam was “one of the most important members of Islamic Jihad”, who had served as commander of the group’s operations in southern Gaza and was in charge of coordination with the Islamist Hamas movement.
The body of a child killed in the shelling is brought to the morgue at Gaza’s Shifa hospital, Tuesday
Tareq Az Aldin was in charge of coordination between members of the YIP in Gaza and in the occupied West Bank and would have planned “multiple attacks against Israeli civilians”; while Jalil Baitini served as commander of the YIP operations in northern Gaza and, according to the Army, was responsible for the attacks launched from the Strip towards Israel during the last month.
The bombardments of the Israeli aviation took place on the cities of Gaza, to the north of the strip, and of Rafah and Khan Younis, to the south, against buildings where these high officials of the YIP lived, including a residential tower in the neighborhood of Al Rimal in Gaza, but also on military installations of the group, considered a terrorist by Israel, the US and the European Union.
A woman looks out the window of her building affected by the Israeli airstrike in Gaza City
Israel also responded then with bombardments to those shots, but restricted to military objectives and caused only one death; but the exchange of fire ceased within 24 hours thanks to an Egyptian-brokered truce.
YIP sources confirmed that the group’s militants were in the two buildings bombarded with missiles launched by Israeli drones, which also caused damage to numerous infrastructures in the enclave.
Palestinian militias vow revenge
The Al Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the JIP in Gaza, lamented in a statement the death of the three leaders “who were assassinated as a result of a cowardly Zionist crime at dawn today.” And he swore revenge: “We mourn our martyred leaders, along with their wives and several of their children. The blood of the martyrs will make our strength grow, we will not abandon our positions and the resistance will continue,” they added.
The Islamist Hamas movement, which rules de facto in the strip, joined the threats: “The enemy was wrong in his calculations and will pay the price for his crime,” added Ismael Haniyeh, the movement’s political chief, and warned that the militias in the enclave are already planning their response. Something for which Israel is already preparing, since it has declared an emergency situation in 40 kilometers around Gaza.
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