Gaza’s Islamic Jihad members killed by Israel strikes
At least 13 Palestinians, including three proactive group Islamic Jihad leaders, have died in Israel air attacks on the Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian health officer said six females and four kids were dead. Another 20 people were hurt.
Israel attacks Gaza with air strikes:
Israel said it had started an operation targeting militants who posed a looming threat to its residents. Islamic Jihad has promised revenge, and Gaza-based militants are predicted to reply with rocket fire into Israel.
Journalists say one crucial factor will be the extent to which Hamas, which rules the Strip, joins in. Israel officers are told to be training for days of the war.
The strikes were the deadliest since three days of fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad last August.
Islamic Jihad is the most prominent proactive group next to Hamas in Gaza. It has been reliable for many missile attacks on Israel from the region in recent years and is vowed to Israel’s destruction.
There was an excruciating flare-up last week, as Islamic Jihad and other groups launched several missiles into Israel over two days following the demise of a Palestinian hunger striker in an Israeli jail. The Israeli army carried out air attacks in reply.
The latest launches occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning, when 40 Israeli jets and choppers hammered in several waves across Gaza, striking houses and causing terror among citizens.
Photographs showed at least two flats with their fronts torn away and others damaged.
Islamic Jihad’s army wing, the al-Quds Brigades, said three of its leaders were dead, along with their families.
It recognised them as Jihad Shaker al-Ghannam, secretary of the al-Quds Brigades’ Military Council; Khalil Salah al-Bahtini, the chief of its Northern Region, and Tariq Muhammad Ezzedine, who it stated was “one of the leaders of military action” in the colonised West Bank.
