Gaza: IDF Intensifies Strikes on Islamic Jihad Targets as Counter-Terrorism Op Winds Down
Ynet News: “So far, some 1,100 rockets were fired at Israel since Operation Shield and Arrow began.”
Israel has intensifex strikes on Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist group as it winds down the counter-terrorism operation in Gaza, the Israeli media reported Saturday evening.
‘We are close to a ceasefire. There will be a huge amount of strikes from the IDF’ on Gaza first,” a senior Israeli security official told the Israeli TV channel i24news.
The ceasefire came into effect on Saturday night. The Israeli news website Ynet reported citing Palestinian officials that “Israel and the Islamic Jihad agreed to an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire that will start at 2200 local” (1500 ET).
Iran-backed Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fired more than 1,000 rockets from Gaza towards Israel as the Israeli military’s “Shield and Arrow” operation entered its fifth day.
“Sirens wailed on Saturday at noon, as heavy rocket barrages were fired at [southern Israeli towns of] Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Netivot and Ashdod,” Ynet reported earlier today. “So far, some 1,100 rockets were fired at Israel since Operation Shield and Arrow began.”
So far in Operation “Shield and Arrow”, over 1,000 rockets have been fired toward Israel with the sole purpose of harming civilians.
We will continue to defend Israel and the safety of the people within. pic.twitter.com/xjRfZzzVqZ
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 13, 2023
The IDF tried to target top Islamic Jihad commanders as they use Gaza residents as human shields. The Times of Israel reported Saturday:
The Israeli military says air force jets struck two command centers belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip in the early hours of Saturday morning, as well as a number of rocket launchers, and mortar launch positions.
The IDF says one command center was used to plan and oversee terrorist operations against Israel and served as the headquarters of the brother of top PIJ commander Baha Abu al-Ata, who was assassinated by Israel in 2019.
Muhammad Abu al-Ata is a senior member of PIJ’s rocket unit operation, the military says, adding that in times of emergency, he “usually abandons his headquarters and takes up residence in Shifa Hospital” in Gaza City “as a hiding place among the civilian population, while continuing to act and attempt to direct terror operations against Israel.”
Israeli aircraft also attacked another command center, one headed by senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad member, Khaled Azzam, also of the rocket unit in Gaza.
The military says this center is used to direct rocket fire across Israel.
The IDF’s Iron Dome and David’s Sling missile defense systems continue to shield the Israeli population from deadly PIJ rockets.
Fresh barrages of rockets fired from Gaza.
We’re live on the border. pic.twitter.com/foAC5v6qsJ
— Hamdah Salhut (@hamdahsalhut) May 13, 2023
The Israeli air force also hit PIJ rocket launch sites. “Over the last hour, IDF aircraft struck three concealed rocket launchers belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip,” the Israel military said in a statement obtained by the Legal Insurrection.
“The IDF is continuing to strike Islamic Jihad terrorist organization targets in the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.
No country would ever tolerate rocket attacks on its citizens – neither does Israel.
We have a duty to protect our people against terrorism. pic.twitter.com/GqzthNKnEM
— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) May 12, 2023
An Islamic Jihad rocket landed in southern Israel, wounding one Bedouin Israeli and two men from Gaza, who were in Israel on agriculture work permit, the local media reported Saturday afternoon.
Israel’s national medical emergency service “Magen David Adom confirmed that a total of three people were injured in a volley of rockets fired toward Israel by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Israeli media reported that the two severely injured men were Gaza residents in Israel on work permits.”
Did you want an example of the cynical use of human shields by Palestinian Islamic Jihad ? Here is the location of launch pits with rockets next to a school operating under the auspices of the United Nations… They were destroyed in a surgical strike last night. pic.twitter.com/IyzswUPq3l
— Israel-Alma (@Israel_Alma_org) May 13, 2023
Meanwhile, the mainstream media continued its critical coverage of Israeli actions taken in response to Islamic Jihad’s relentless rocket fire.
Islamic Jihad's primary goal is the destruction of #Israel through #terrorism. So why are the media trying to whitewash what the #terrorist group and its militants stand for? #IslamicJihad pic.twitter.com/SKvlqCDLSV
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 9, 2023
Here is the IDF spokesman telling the truth about the Islamic Jihad on CNN. (Also worth watching: Israel’s former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett shuts down the hostile CNN moderator.)
Islamic Jihad rockets target Gaza crossings
The Islamic Jihad is deliberately firing rockets at road crossings leading from Israel into Gaza, disrupting the supply of humanitarian goods to the Hamas-controlled territory, Israel’s Ministry of Defense said Saturday.
About 17,000 Palestinian workers cross Erez crossing daily from #Gaza for work in Israel. Palestinian Islamic Jihad has been firing rockets and mortar rounds at the crossing. This is today 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/GOyzvSy1bd
— Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) May 13, 2023
“Since the beginning of Operation Shield and Arrow, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has launched dozens of mortar shells toward the areas adjacent to the Erez and Kerem Shalom Crossings,” the Israeli defense ministry said in a statement received by the Legal Insurrection.
“The continuing fire toward the crossings prevents their opening, as it endangers the safety of the people and merchandise that cross through them, as well as the safety of the people who staff the crossings. The fire directed at the crossings, and the rockets that misfire, bring harm to the residents of the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.
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Talk about textbook war crimes. Additional Protocol 51 is quite explicit. Yet the ICC is silent, even as “Palestine” has sibmitted to its jurisdiction. Tells you all you need to know about the “human rights” community, political to the core.
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-51?activeTab=undefined
It speaks volumes about the manifest and appalling moral bankruptcy, dishonesty and Jew-hate possessed by American Dhimmi-crats and European, Leftist dhimmis, that when Arab Muslim terrorists callously exploit their civilian population by putting weapons and munitions in their midst, it is Israeli Jews who are blamed if they target these weapons and munitions with the utmost care, unintentionally killing civilians in the process.
Under what rational moral calculus are the Arab Muslim terrorist thugs deemed to be blameless, here?
The USA is actually funding these attacks.
USA provides massive amounts of financial aid to Israel’s enemy.
Since $$$$ is fungible, USA money frees up resources that are used to attack Israel.
There should be no aid of any kind to the Philistines in Gaza. Period.