An Israeli airstrike eliminated the rocket chief of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) along with other top members of the outfit.
The Israeli counterstrike comes as Palestinian terrorist groups intensify their rocket offensive on cities and towns in central and southern Israel, including Jerusalem. More than 650 missiles were fired at Israel in the past 24 hours, killing at least two civilians, causing damage, and disrupting normal life.
“An elderly woman and her caregiver killed by rockets launched by Palestinian terrorists” in Ashkelon, Israeli TV channel i24News reported.
Among the rocket targets were residential areas, including a direct hit at an evacuated high school in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
The Israel military operation, which targeted top leadership of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, killed the Islamist group’s rocket chief Samih al-Mamluk along with at least two other leading terrorist operatives, Israeli media reports say. “Israel targeted the high-rise building in the upscale al-Rimal neighborhood of the city,” the Times of Israel reported.
Israel Defense Forces also confirmed killing the head of Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit, Fathi Faik Sharir, in a separate airstrike.
Israeli news website YNet News reported the details of the Israeli airstrike against Palestinian Islamic Jihad:
The IDF and Shin Bet domestic security agency announced on Tuesday that a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group in the Gaza Strip has been assassinated in a joint operation.The military identified the militant as the head of the PIJ’s rocket unit Samih al-Mamluk. Other senior militants in the organization were also killed in the same strike, including Mohamad Abu al-Atta — brother of the military commander of the PIJ’s Northern Brigade in Gaza Bahaa Abu al-Atta who was assassinated by Israel in late 2019 — and Kamal Karika.PIJ confirmed the three killed in an airstrike on a hideout apartment in Gaza City were senior members of its armed wing and vowed retaliation.
As Palestinian rioters mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan by violence on the Temple Mount and across Jerusalem, Hamas and other terrorist groups are using Gaza to launch rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
The Israeli retaliation follows Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks to target Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups responsible for the current rocket barrage.
The Israeli government has made the decision “to further intensify the severity and pace of the attacks,” the Israeli prime minister said. “Hamas will receive blows here that it did not expect.”
Several Arab and Muslim countries are ganging up to condemn Israel as Palestinians unleash a wave of terror and rioting against the country.
The 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) passed a harsh resolution condemning the Jewish State. Israel’s defense measures “amount to “war crimes” under international humanitarian law, and those committing the “ruthless Violations”,” Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported.
The 22-member Arab League also made similar baseless allegations against Israel.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian terror campaign shows no sign of letting up. “Defiant Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad officials on Tuesday threatened to step up their attacks on Israel,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
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