Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem and Hazem Balousha in Gaza City
Sat, 6 August 2022
Residents of the Gaza Strip were bracing for the possibility of a new round of war on Saturday after two days of “pre-emptive” Israeli airstrikes against a Palestinian militant group.
Israeli warplanes hit several sites in the blockaded territory on Friday, part of a surprise operation named “Breaking Dawn” that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said thwarted alleged planned rocket attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
After retaliatory fire from the militants, Israel warned on Saturday that its bombing campaign could last a week, in the worst escalation of violence since last May’s 11-day conflict.
As exchanges of fire continued and Israel appeared to broaden the operation on Saturday, health authorities in the Palestinian coastal enclave said 15 people had been killed by Israeli bombing, including the Islamic Jihad commander for north Gaza, Tayseer Jabari, and civilians including a five-year-old girl and 22-year-old art student. More than 80 more people were injured.
While it sometimes acts independently, the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas, the larger Islamist movement that rules the strip, and both are considered terrorist organisations by most of the international community.
Whether the latest confrontation between Israel and Islamic Jihad will escalate into full-out war largely depends on whether Hamas – still licking its wounds from last year’s war – decides to intervene.
The group has announced its support for Islamic Jihad, and said it would also respond to the strikes. “The resistance, with all its arms and military factions, is united in this campaign and will have the last word,” Hamas officials said in a statement.
Islamic Jihad called the initial Israeli bombardment a “declaration of war”, firing a barrage of at least 100 rockets into southern Israel on Friday night.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, with many rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defence system, but 13 people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Air raid sirens continued to blare in Tel Aviv and towns and cities across Israel’s south on Saturday.
The hostilities have left Gaza’s inhabitants fearful of what could be the fifth full-scale conflict in the strip since Hamas seized control in 2007. Israel and Egypt closed the enclave’s frontiers shortly after, leaving the area’s 2 million residents grappling with unemployment, crumbling medical infrastructure and little electricity and clean water for the last 15 years.
On Saturday, dozens of people lined up in front of bakeries and grocery stores, while the local energy authority, unable to supply the sole power station with fuel, shut down operations at midday.
Hamed al-Hindi, 33, waited to buy bread for his family and elderly parents for more than an hour in downtown Gaza City. “I don’t know how long this escalation will take and how bad it will be,” he said.
“We couldn’t sleep last night, the sounds of explosions didn’t stop. I brought my three children to my room to keep them calm.”
Lamia al-Bakri, who was leaving a supermarket carrying several plastic bags, said: “Everything happened suddenly and without warning.
“My 10-year-old daughter kept asking me, ‘Could we go to Egypt and live there, I don’t want war, I’m afraid. I don’t want any of us get hurt.’
“I don’t know why these kids must suffer for years,” the 41-year-old said.
The heaviest strikes yet hit four residential buildings the IDF said were linked to Islamic Jihad activity on Saturday afternoon. In each case, the Israeli military warned residents beforehand, and no casualties were reported.
Another strike on Saturday hit a car, killing a 75-year-old woman and wounding six others. Other strikes largely hit rural areas, targeting what Israel said were rocket launcher sites and training camps.
Egypt, which often mediates between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, said it had been informed by Israel that Breaking Dawn would be a small-scale assault, but efforts at coordinating a ceasefire have yielded no progress so far.
This weekend’s violence comes after days of tension sparked by the arrest of Bassem al-Saadi, Islamic Jihad’s top commander in the occupied West Bank. The IDF has conducted near-nightly raids across the West Bank since mid-March, in response to a wave of Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli citizens.
While Islamic Jihad did not launch rockets after Saadi’s arrest, Israel has insisted through the week that the group is seeking revenge, and that two units armed with anti-tank missiles posed an imminent threat.
Israel has closed the Erez crossing, used by Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel, since Tuesday and shut down roads and restricted movement of civilians in Israel’s south as a precaution.
Israeli tanks and armour were lined up along the frontier on Friday, after the military said it was reinforcing its troops, and its defence minister, Benny Gantz, has approved an order to call up 25,000 reservists if needed.
“Israel isn’t interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but will not shy away from one either,” the Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, said in a televised address on Friday. “Israel will not sit idly by when there are those who are trying to harm its civilians.”
The Gaza Strip has remained relatively quiet since the war in May last year, which killed 256 people in Gaza and 14 people in Israel.
Israel elected a coalition government a month later that for the first time included members of an independent Arab-Israeli party, opposed to escalation with Palestinians. It also increased the number of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel in an attempt to alleviate the strip’s crushing poverty.
The short-lived coalition collapsed in June. Centrist Lapid, the caretaker prime minister, is preparing for elections on 1 November in which he faces pressure from Israel’s right wing to appear tough on terrorism.
PLO condemns Israeli aggression on Gaza, calls for international protection for the Palestinian people
Damage to a building in Gaza City caused by Israeli air strikes. (WAFA Images)
RAMALLAH, Saturday, August 6, 2022 (WAFA) – The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) today condemned the ongoing Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip and called for international protection for the Palestinian people.
“We strongly condemn the brutal aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip by the occupation forces, which targets civilians, children and its infrastructure,” said Hussein al-Sheikh, Secretary General of the PLO’s Executive Committee.
“We call on the international community to intervene and provide protection for our people,” he added.
Eleven people have been killed in two days of Israeli attacks on Gaza and dozens more injured, in addition to heavy destruction of property.
M.K.
Israeli occupation forces detaining Palestinians in the occupied territories.
RAMALLAH, Saturday, August 6, 2022 (WAFA) – The Israeli occupation army this morning and last night detained at least 21 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, most of them former prisoners and include a journalist, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).
It said that the army detained six people from the village of Beit Sira, west of Ramallah, including the journalist Ibrahim Abu Safieh.
Four others were detained in the Hebron governorate, in addition to arrests made in Jenin, Tubas, Tulkarm in the north of the West Bank, and Qalandia refugee camp near Jerusalem, said the PPS.
M.K.
Palestinian killed in the second day of Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip
Explosions caused from an Israeli strike on the Gaza Strip. (WAFA Images)
06/August/2022
KHAN YUNIS, Saturday, August 6, 2022 (WAFA) – A Palestinian man was killed this morning in the second day of the Israeli aggression against the besieged Gaza Strip, the 11th victim in the Israeli attacks.
WAFA correspondent said an Israeli drone fired a missile at a farm in Bani Suhaila town, east of Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, killing one person and injuring several others.
Israeli warplanes continued today their attacks in the north, center and south of the Gaza Strip causing damage to homes and property.
Ten people were killed when Israel yesterday launched several unprovoked attacks on the Gaza Strip, including a 5-year-old baby and a 23-year-old woman, while dozens were injured, some of them said to be critical.
In retaliation, dozens of projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip at locations in southern Israel, causing panic but no injuries.
M.K.
By Nidal Al-Mughrabi
1/5
A woman looks on as she stands next to a damaged building where senior commander of Islamic Jihad militant group Tayseer al-Jaabari was killed in Israeli strikes, in Gaza City August 6, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
GAZA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Israeli aircraft struck in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israeli cities on Saturday as fighting ran into a second day, ending more than a year of relative calm along the border.
Israel on Friday said it had launched a special operation against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, killing one of its senior commanders in a surprise daytime air-strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City. read more
The Israeli strikes killed nine more Palestinians, including at least four Islamic Jihad militants and a child, and wounding 79 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it had apprehended 19 Islamic Jihad militants in overnight arrest raids.
Palestinian militants fired at least 160 rockets over the border, the military said, some deep into Israel toward the commercial hub Tel Aviv. Most of the missiles were intercepted and a few people were lightly injured when running to shelters.
Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar had begun mediating an end to the violence, according to a Palestinian official with knowledge of the efforts, "but no breakthrough yet", the official said.
A Western-backed Palestinian Authority official condemned Israel's attacks.
"We call on the international community to intervene and provide protection for our people," Civil Affairs Minister Hussein al-Sheikh said on Twitter.
Further escalation would largely depend on Hamas, the Islamic militant group which controls Gaza, and whether it would opt to join the fighting.
Tensions rose this week after Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander in the West Bank, drawing threats of retaliation from the group.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Friday's strikes thwarted an immediate and concrete attack by Islamic Jihad.
The frontier had been largely quiet since May 2021, when 11 days of fierce fighting between Israel and militants left at least 250 people in Gaza and 13 in Israel dead.
August 5, 2022
By Fares Akram and Tia Goldenberg | Associated Press
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli jets pounded militant targets in Gaza early Saturday as rockets rained on southern Israel, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave killed at least 11 people, including a senior militant and a 5-year-old girl.
The fighting that began Friday with Israel’s dramatic targeted killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued throughout the night, drawing the sides closer to an all-out war.
But the territory’s Hamas rulers appeared to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat contained, for now. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years at a staggering cost to the territory’s 2 million Palestinian residents.
The latest round of Israel-Gaza violence was sparked by the arrest this week of a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, part of a monthlong Israeli military operation in the territory. Citing a security threat, Israel then sealed roads around the Gaza Strip and on Friday killed the militant leader in a targeted strike.
A blast was heard in Gaza City, where smoke poured from the seventh floor of a tall building. Video released by Israel’s military showed the strikes blowing up three guard towers with suspected militants in them.
In a nationally televised speech Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said his country launched the attacks based on “concrete threats.”
“This government has a zero-tolerance policy for any attempted attacks — of any kind — from Gaza towards Israeli territory,” Lapid said. “Israel will not sit idly by when there are those who are trying to harm its civilians.”
“Israel isn’t interested in a broader conflict in Gaza but will not shy away from one either,” he added.
The violence poses an early test for Lapid, who assumed the role of caretaker prime minister ahead of elections in November when he hopes to keep the position.
Lapid, a centrist former TV host and author, has experience in diplomacy having served as foreign minister in the outgoing government but has thin security credentials. A conflict with Gaza could burnish his standing and give him a boost as he faces off against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a security hawk who led the country during three of its four wars with Hamas.
Hamas also faces a dilemma in deciding whether to join a new battle barely a year after the last war caused widespread devastation. There has been almost no reconstruction since then, and the isolated coastal territory is mired in poverty, with unemployment hovering around 50%.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 5-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman were among those killed in Gaza, without differentiating between civilian and militant casualties. The Israeli military said early estimates were that around 15 fighters were killed. Dozens were wounded.
Islamic Jihad said Taiseer al-Jabari, its commander for northern Gaza, was among the dead. He had succeeded another militant killed in an airstrike in 2019. That set off a heavy round of fighting between Israel and the militant group.
An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes were in response to an “imminent threat” from two militant squads armed with anti-tank missiles. The spokesman, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said al-Jabari was deliberately targeted and had been responsible for “multiple attacks” on Israel.
Hundreds marched in a funeral procession for him and others who were killed, with many mourners waving Palestinian and Islamic Jihad flags and calling for revenge.
Israeli media showed the skies above southern and central Israel lighting up with rockets and interceptors from Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system. It wasn’t immediately clear how many rockets were launched, and there were no immediate reports of casualties on the Israeli side.
Overnight, Israel struck rocket launchers, rocket building sites and Islamic Jihad positions. It also arrested 19 Islamic Jihad militants in the West Bank, the military said.
The U.N. special envoy to the region, Tor Wennesland, said: “The launching of rockets must cease immediately, and I call on all sides to avoid further escalation.”
Following the initial Israeli strikes, a few hundred people gathered outside the morgue at Gaza City’s main Shifa hospital. Some went in to identify loved ones and emerged later in tears.
“May God take revenge against spies,” shouted one, referring to Palestinian informants who cooperate with Israel.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved an order to call up 25,000 reserve soldiers if needed while the military announced a “special situation” on the home front, with schools closed and limits placed on activities in communities within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the border.
Israel closed roads around Gaza earlier this week and sent reinforcements to the border as it braced for a revenge attack after Monday’s arrest of Bassam al-Saadi, an Islamic Jihad leader, in a military raid in the occupied West Bank. A teenage member of the group was killed in a gun battle between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.
Hamas seized power in the coastal strip from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Its most recent war with Israel was in May 2021. Tensions soared again earlier this year following a wave of attacks inside Israel, near-daily military operations in the West Bank and tensions at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site. Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005.
Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah, speaking to the Al-Mayadeen TV network from Iran, said “fighters of the Palestinian resistance have to stand together to confront this aggression.” He said there would be “no red lines” and blamed the violence on Israel.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said “the Israeli enemy, which started the escalation against Gaza and committed a new crime, must pay the price and bear full responsibility for it.”
Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad is smaller than Hamas but largely shares its ideology. Both groups oppose Israel’s existence and have carried out scores of deadly attacks over the years, including the firing of rockets into Israel. It’s unclear how much control Hamas has over Islamic Jihad, and Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
TEHRAN, Aug. 06 (MNA) – The Zionist regime's army launched brutal attacks on the Gaza Strip on Friday evening, killing a number of Palestinians, including a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad movement, and a five-year-old child.
On Friday, the Israeli regime launched missiles throughout the Gaza Strip, killing 10 people, including a five-year-old girl, a 23-year-old woman, as well as Taysir al-Jabari, a commander of Islamic Jihad’s military wing.
The Islamic Jihad has fired more than 100 rockets toward the occupied territories after the Israeli regime assassinated one of the Palestinian resistance movement’s senior commanders during a massacre.
The movement called the retaliatory barrage only an “initial response” to the Israeli bloodbath that killed a number of Palestinians in the city of Rafah which is located in the southern part of the Tel Aviv-blockaded Gaza Strip.
"As an initial response to the killing of senior commander Taysir al-Jabari and his brethren martyrs... the al-Quds Brigade covered Tel Aviv, central cities, and areas surrounding Gaza with more than 100 rockets," the Islamic Jihad's military wing said in a statement on Friday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said well over 80 people had also been injured in the Israeli attack earlier in the day.
There were various reactions to the Zionist regime's deadly attack on the Gaza Strip. The followings are the reactions to Friday’s airstrikes on Gaza:
Yemen’s Ansarullah
Furthermore, Yemen’s popular Ansarullah resistance movement, while condemning Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, underlined the Palestinian nation’s inalienable right to defend itself.
The political bureau of Ansarullah stressed that Palestinians reserve the right to respond to the barbaric aggression of the Tel Aviv regime.
Ansarullah also called on Arab and Muslim nations to honor their responsibilities, and help the Palestinian nation and resistance groups in their struggle against the occupying Israeli regime.
Iraqi resistance groups
The Iraqi resistance movement Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq also said, “We emphasize our constant solidarity with the Palestinian nation, and their resistance to thwart aggressors' plots.”
The anti-terror Kata'ib Hezbollah movement stated, “We are not surprised by the assassination of our brethren in Gaza by the Zionist regime. We are astounded by the silence of the Arab world.”
“Repeated Israeli attacks against the resilient Palestinian nation are the unfortunate outcome of normalization of ties with the Zionist regime. Targeted killings and bombardment of residential buildings is a confirmation of the enemy’s criminal approach,” it added.
United Nations
The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, warned the “dangerous” escalation risked creating the need for more aid at a time when world resources were stretched by other conflicts.
“In the past few hours, at least 10 Palestinians were killed by Israeli air strikes. I am deeply saddened by reports that a five-year-old child has been killed in these strikes. There can be no justification for any attacks against civilians,” said Wennesland.
“The launching of rockets must cease immediately, and I call on all sides to avoid further escalation.”
Arab League
The Arab League in a statement condemned the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, saying, “it holds the occupiers responsible for its consequences and bloody crimes.”
Iran
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani strongly condemned on Friday the Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.
"It is the legal right of the Palestinian people and resistance groups to act and defend themselves in the face of the aggression and terrorist moves of the Zionist regime," the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
He added that the Israeli regime's new wave of air strikes across the besieged Palestinian enclave was a "criminal, adventurous and provocative" move.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson emphasized that the "apartheid regime of Israel" shoulders full responsibility for the "crime" and the consequences of its aggression on Palestine and the Gaza Strip.
Kan'ani urged all countries and international organizations to fulfill their legal, moral and human responsibility to defend the oppressed Palestinian people and condemn the Israeli regime's terrorist moves.
They should also take measures to stop the continuation of such crimes by the Tel Aviv regime, which is the main factor behind instability and insecurity in the region, he said.
Turkey
Ankara “strongly” condemned the Israeli air raids on Gaza and said it is “unacceptable that civilians, including children, lose their lives in attacks”.
The foreign ministry in a statement urged “restraint and common sense” following the deadly attacks on the blockaded enclave.
Egypt
Cairo is working to calm the latest escalation in Gaza. “We hope to reach a consensus to return to calm as soon as possible,” an unnamed security source told AFP news agency. Separately, another source said a delegation from Islamic Jihad may head to Cairo later Saturday.
Qatar
Qatar expressed its “strong condemnation and denunciation” of Friday’s attacks. It stressed “the need for the international community to move urgently to stop the [Israeli] occupation’s repeated attacks against civilians, especially women and children”.
In a statement Friday, the foreign affairs ministry reiterated the State of Qatar’s firm position on the justice of the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the brotherly Palestinian people.
Jordan
Amman demanded that Israel “immediately stop its aggression” on the Gaza Strip. Spokesman Haitham Abu al-Ful warned of “dangerous” consequences that “will only increase tension and violence and deepen the environment of despair”.
Lebanese Hezbollah
In a statement, the Lebanese Hezbollah offered condolence over the martyrdom of some of the Islamic Jihad Movement’s commanders and stressed the necessity of supporting the Palestinians and their resistance movement in order to liberate the Palestinian occupied lands and prisoners.
Islamic Jihad
Secretary-General of the Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah said the Israeli enemy must expect a "non-stop" confrontation in the wake of the Friday aggression.
There will be no truce following this attack, the Islamic Jihad official said. All resistance groups must struggle under one flag in this fight, Nakhalah said.
In a statement, the Islamic Jihad said, “The enemy has begun a war targeting our people, and we all have the duty to defend ourselves and our people, and not allow the enemy to get away with its actions, which are aimed at undermining the resistance and national steadfastness.”
Hamas
Hamas, Islamic Jihad’s fellow Gaza-based resistance movement, also said the Israeli enemy "committed a new crime" and must "pay its price."
Ghazi Hamad, a senior official for Hamas – the group that governs the Strip – said the latest attack is “a brutal crime, a massacre done by the Israeli occupation against our people”.
Hamas Chief Ismail Haniyeh also condemned the criminal attacks of the Zionist army on the Gaza Strip, calling for stopping the crimes of the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people.
ZZ/
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