Israel launched dawn air strikes today against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group in the Gaza Strip, the army said, while the Hamas-controlled territory’s health ministry said 13 people were killed, including four women and four children. At least 20 were injured in the attacks.
An AFP reporter in Gaza saw the top of a burning building after the attacks and ambulances evacuating the victims. The Israeli military said it had targeted three leaders of Islamic Jihad, which it considers a terrorist organization. The militant group confirmed the killing of three senior officials, naming them in a statement: Jihad Ghannam, secretary of the military council of the Al-Quds Brigades, and Khalil al-Bahtini, also of the council and commander of the military wing in the north of Gaza.
The third, Tareq Ezzedine, has been described as “one of the leaders of military action” in the occupied West Bank operating from Gaza. “We mourn the leaders and their wives and some of their children who were killed in a cowardly Zionist crime,” reads an Islamic Jihad note, vowing that “the blood of the martyrs will increase (the) determination” of the movement.
State of alert declared
A state of alert was proclaimed by Israel in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, amid fears of rocket attacks by Islamic Jihad following the killing of three of its military leaders. Israeli roads close to the Strip have been closed and traffic on the railway line has been halted between Ashkelon and Sderot. Residents in the area have been ordered to stay close to shelters and sheltered rooms. Military radio reported that hundreds of reservists had been called up.
Netanyahu convenes the Security Cabinet
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu convened the Israeli Security Cabinet tonight on the situation in Gaza. A government source explained that last night’s attacks in the Strip were carried out “in response to a relentless aggression by Islamic Jihad” and that “the terrorists killed were at work carrying out terrorist operations against Israeli citizens”. The source recalled that around 100 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at the beginning of May.
Schools closed in Gaza
As military tensions with Israel escalated, the Gaza authorities ordered the closure of all schools in the Strip. The state of alert was also raised along the coast of Gaza, probably in fear of new Israeli attacks after those of the night. An Islamic Jihad spokesman has threatened “revenge” for the killing of three of its military leaders in Israeli attacks. “The enemy only understands the language of force,” he said. “An atrocious crime committed by the Israeli occupation,” says the foreign ministry of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). “An extension – he added – of the open war against our people and their just and legitimate national rights”. The PNA then asked the international community for “urgent intervention to stop the aggression against the Palestinian people” underlining the need for “a negotiated political agreement” for the conflict.