2023-05-09 12:28:42
The Israeli army on Tuesday (May 9) killed three senior Islamic Jihad operatives in a series of strikes against the Gaza Strip, in which ten other people were killed, including four women and four children. In doing so, the Israeli power takes the risk of an escalation not only with this armed movement, but also with its great sponsor in power in the enclave, Hamas. It also tests the determination of these Palestinian movements, Lebanese Hezbollah and their Iranian sponsor to unify their fronts.
Israel continues with these targeted assassinations a cycle of violence triggered on May 2 by the death of a figure in the movement, Khader Adnan, who died in an Israeli prison after eighty-seven days of hunger strike. Islamic Jihad responded by firing dozens of rockets from Gaza, in broad daylight, towards the city of Sderot in particular.
The army prepared for a long week for this operation, dubbed “Shield and Arrow”, and assumes that it killed civilians to eliminate the three leaders of Islamic Jihad. Airplanes struck around 2 am, at the same time, three apartments in Gaza City and in Rafah, a town adjoining the Egyptian border, in the south of the enclave.
The man who acted as liaison between the Jihad command in Gaza and its cells in Cijsordania, Tarek Az Aldin, was killed, along with two of his children. Two military commanders of the movement were also eliminated: Khalil Al-Bahtini, leader of Jihad in the northern part of Gaza, from where the movement draws the bulk of its rockets towards Israel, and Jihad Ghannam, secretary of the military council of the movement. . The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday morning counted thirteen dead in total, as well as twenty wounded.
Closure of access to Gaza
The Israeli air force also targeted ten sites used by the Islamic Jihad to manufacture rockets and build tunnels, as well as arms depots and logistical infrastructures, in particular in Khan Younis, in the south of the enclave that Israel has been under blockade, with the help of Egypt, since Hamas came to power in 2007.
The Islamic Jihad, the second movement of armed resistance to Israel, which does not aspire to power in the Palestinian territories, did not respond immediately to these assassinations. But he says he is forced to do so by “rules of engagement” that he has established in the past with Israel. Israeli schools around the Gaza Strip were closed Tuesday morning. The army asked residents to stay near the shelters. She stands ready to call up reservists, on the orders of Defense Minister Yoav Galant. Access to Gaza has been closed.
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