Tel Aviv/Gaza - Two senior Islamic Jihad leaders were targeted
in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and Syria on Tuesday, sparking one of
the worst rounds of violence in the region in five years.
Baha Abu al-Ata - the 42-year-old leader of the Quds Brigades, the
armed wing of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip - was killed
alongside his wife in an aerial attack on their house.
Palestinian militants responded by launching a barrage of rockets
toward Israel, prompting warning sirens to blare in Tel Aviv and in
communities near the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described al-Ata as the
"main terrorist instigator in the Gaza Strip."
"All terrorists think alike. They think they can harm civilians and
hide behind civilians. We have proven that we can hit with surgical
precision," he said at a press conference.
The Israel Defense Forces said al-Ata was "directly responsible for
hundreds of terror attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers."
Also on Tuesday, three Israeli rocket attacks west of the Syrian
capital Damascus targeted the house of Akram al-Ajouri, who dpa
sources said is another leader of the Quds Brigades.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/JihadEnough?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#JihadEnough pic.twitter.com/h6VXzdwcmz
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF)
Syrian state-run news Agency SANA reported that the militant had not
been killed in the attacks, but that his son, Mouaz, and another
person were dead and 10 other people injured.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said al-Ajouri
and his wife were among the wounded.
Palestinians chant angry slogans as they carry the body of Islamic Jihad commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, who was killed with his wife by an Israeli missile strike hit his house, during his funeral in Gaza City. Picture: Khalil Hamra/AP
In another air raid by Israel later on Tuesday morning, an Islamic
Jihad militant was killed in the Gaza Strip while riding a
motorcycle. The Israeli military said he had been about to launch a
rocket from the bike.
"The [terrorist] organization's rocket launching unit posed an
immediate threat," the Israeli military said in a statement.
The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that three people had been
killed and 18 others injured in total.
The ministry said that "two Palestinians, including a woman, were
killed in an Israeli attack hit a house in al-Shuja'eya
neighbourhood."
Smoke rises after an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City. Israel killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza in a resumption of pinpointed targeting that threatens a fierce round of cross-border violence with Palestinian militants. Picture: Hatem Moussa/AP
Mos'ab al-Briem, the spokesman of the Islamic Jihad militant group in
Gaza, called the pre-dawn killing of its military leader an
"assassination" and a "declaration of war against our Palestinian
people."
Gaza militants responded to the airstrikes by launching a wave of
rockets into Israel. Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system shot
down about 20 of 50 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, an IDF
statement said.
Israeli aircraft targeted military sites in the Gaza Strip in
response, Palestinian security sources said. The Israeli military did
not immediately confirm this.
A rocket fired from Gaza slammed into a major junction in southern
Israel, narrowly missing two cars. One of the two drivers was taken
to hospital with shrapnel wounds, the Magen David Adom (MDA)
ambulance service confirmed.
Relatives of Islamic Jihad commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, who was killed with his wife by an Israeli missile strike on their home, mourn during the funeral in Gaza City. Picture: Khalil Hamra/AP
An 8-year-old Israeli girl suffered a cardiac arrest while running to
a shelter in the southern Tel Aviv suburb of Holon, the MDA added.
A rocket also directly struck a house in the town of Netivot.
Schools and kindergartens were closed and shelters opened in the
greater Tel Aviv area, as two rockets were intercepted over the city.
The Israeli army published images of a damaged building on Gaza
City's south-eastern outskirts, saying it had been "surgically
targeted."
In the press conference at the Defence Ministry, Netanyahu said the
current round of violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel "may take
time."
"Israel is not interested in an escalation, but we will do anything
necessary to defend ourselves," he said.