The terror organization, Islamic Jihad, has launched nearly 1,000 rockets and mortars at Israel from Gaza in just 3 days. The Israeli military struck more than 140 Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, eliminating much of the terrorist’s senior leadership.
During the conflict, Islamic Jihad shot a faulty rocket towards Israel which landed inside of Gaza killing 3 Palestinian children, and displaying these terrorist’s complete disregard for human life. On the opposite side, Israel repeatedly delayed an airstrike on one of the top terrorist leaders in Gaza because their were innocent Palestinian children playing nearby the building.
Gaza has been shooting hundreds of rockets at Israel and the IDF has taken out several terrorist leaders inside of the Gaza Strip.
The Islamic Jihad organization has launched nearly 1,000 rockets and mortars at Israel since the fighting began on Friday afternoon. Israel has struck more than 140 Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, eliminating much of the terrorist organization’s senior leadership.
On Friday, IDF Fighter jets targeted Tayseer Jabari, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad Officer. According to the IDF, Jabari was entrusted in making many decisions in the PIJ and carried out anti-tank missile attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers recently.
In addition, approximately ten PIJ terrorist operatives were targeted, including a terrorist squad who were on their way to carry out an anti-tank missile and sniper attack. Military bases and buildings used by the terrorist operatives were also targeted.
More than 100 rockets were fired from Gaza into civilian population centers Friday night in retaliation for the assasination of Jabari. At least 60 rockets entered Israeli territory and 33 were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
Rockets continued to rain down from Gaza all day Saturday, while the IDF continued to take out terrorist positions and weapons storage facilities.
On Sunday morning, the Islamic Jihad Terror Group confirmed that Khaled Mansour, the leader of the organization’s southern division, was eliminated in an IDF attack in the Gaza Strip. Also eliminated in the attack was Ziad Al-Mudallal, the son of the senior Islamic Jihad leader Ahmad al-Mudallal. IDF forces also struck an offensive terror tunnel in Gaza overnight.
Around 8:00 AM Sunday morning, there were rockets fired toward Jerusalem. Two explosions were heard in the area, as the two rockets were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system. There were no reported injuries in the attack.
There was another wave of rocket attacks, which took place just after 7:30 p.m. Sunday night towards Sderot, Ashkelon, and other communities in southern Israel. More than 50 rockets were fired in total between 7:00 to 7:30. One person was lightly injured when shrapnel from a rocket struck a home in a moshav in the Negev district.
The head of the operations department in the IDF, Major General Oded Basiuk, told the media on Saturday night that “The entire security elite of the Islamic Jihad has been eliminated.”
“Another very important phenomenon could be seen in the last few hours. The Islamic Jihad fires hundreds of rockets, a significant part of which hits inside the Gaza Strip. According to all the data I have – I see that the attack on Jabaliya is self-inflicted. The organization not only endangers Israeli lives, it also hurts the Palestinians. We will continue and act against the Islamic Jihad as long as we need to. We will not stop until the Islamic Jihad stops threatening us. Patience is important, not everything works smoothly in such operations. So far the results are good.”
This brings up a particular piece of information that has been taken and twisted around to blame Israel. Take this piece of reporting from CNN, “Gaza escalation continues into the second day. In one incident Saturday, four children were among seven people killed in an explosion in Jabalya. The Palestinian Health Ministry initially said the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike. Israel rejected the claim and said it was the result of errant rocket fire, and released a video showing what it said was the Islamic Jihad rocket sharply changing course in the air and hitting the building.”
The Associated Press and Reuters reported a similar story.
Israeli Arab MK Ahmed Tibi also immediately blamed Israel when he tweeted, “This is what the US and the UK refer to as ‘Israel’s right to self-defense.'”
“Three or more ‘dangerous terrorists’ killed in Gaza now, clearly today Israel is a safer place.”
He later deleted his tweet because as it turns out, the IDF published a video proving that these children were killed by a rocket that failed to leave the Gaza strip.
A couple of other media outlets also reported similar corrections.
Israel’s value of human life
The IDF had targeted a weapons cache and were poised and ready to strike the building from the air, but aborted the mission last minute because of a Gazan civilian who happened to walk too close to the building.
Also, in another instance, when the IDF went to strike the PIJ leader Khaled Mansour, they delayed the mission several times due to children playing near the house of the terrorist.
As of Monday morning…
Since hostilities broke out Friday, more than 950 rockets have been fired by Islamic Jihad terrorists in Gaza towards Israel. The IDF has responded with dozens of strikes across the Gaza Strip, including eleven strikes on rocket launch sites.
Yesterday A Top IDF official said, “We eliminated all Islamic Jihad leaders in Gaza” and, “We will not stop until the PIJ stops threatening us, and we will complete the tasks.”
The Head of the National Public Diplomacy Directorate confirmed on Sunday evening that a ceasefire will take effect at 11:30 p.m.
“The State of Israel thanks Egypt for its efforts. If the ceasefire is violated, the State of Israel maintains the right to respond strongly. We will not allow any disruption to the lives of the citizens of the State of Israel,”
Before the ceasefire came into force, a heavy barrage of rocket fire began towards areas near the Gaza border. In response, an IDF unmanned aerial vehicle attacked a rocket launcher belonging to the Islamic Jihad in Gaza.
Continue to pray for the safety of Israel and that no more innocent lives will be lost.
