Israel kills Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza, sparking reprisal rocket attacks
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Version 1 of 9. Home of Islamic Jihad political leader also targeted in Syria, according to Syrian state media Israel has killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza and been accused of attempting to kill another member of the same group in Syria, in rare targeted assassinations that immediately prompted rounds of retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza. Baha Abu al-Ata, 42, was killed with his wife in their home in Gaza city by an airstrike, the Iran-backed group said in a statement. Two others were wounded. An Israeli army statement accused Abu al-Ata of coordinating repeated rocket launches, as well as sniper fire into Israel over the past year and said he was preparing further attacks. It referred to him as a “ticking bomb”. “Abu al-Ata was promoting preparations to commit immediate terror attacks in various ways towards Israeli civilians and [Israel Defense Forces] troops during the recent few days,” the statement said. His killing, it added, was a “direct act to remove an imminent threat”. The office of Benjamin Netanyahu said that the prime minister had signed off on the killing, which came just days after Naftali Bennett, a hardline nationalist who has been calling for more aggressive action in Gaza, was named Israeli defence minister. Bennett, too, signed off on the attack. More than 180 miles (300km) away in Damascus, Syrian state media accused Israel of also targeting the home of an Islamic Jihad political leader, Akram Al-Ajouri. He survived but two people, including his son, were killed when a several missiles hit his home before dawn. Photos published by state news agency SANA showed damage to a two-storey building. Unlike the attack in Gaza, which Israel claimed, it did not confirm it had launched an attack in Syria. In recent years, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, but normally does not acknowledge them. Targeted assassinations against enemy factions, once a mainstay of Israeli policy, were largely abandoned in recent years as they often served to raised tensions while senior posts opened by dead leaders were soon filled. Palestinian Islamic Jihad warned on Tuesday that the group’s “inevitable retaliation will rock the Zionist entity”, referring to Israel. Rocket sirens in Israel sounded in multiple cities near the Gaza frontier, but even as far north as the commercial capital, Tel Aviv. Schools were closed across southern and central Israel, and civilians were instructed to stay near bomb shelters and not to go to work. It was not clear if there were any casualties. Several Palestinian militant groups operate from the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which holds power in the enclave, has fought three wars with Israel but has in recent months agreed to truce agreements that have mostly held. Hamas said Israel “bears full responsibility for all consequences of this escalation” and promised that al-Ata’s death “will not go unpunished”. Islamic Jihad, Gaza’s second most-powerful group, is backed by Israel’s major foe, Iran. While the group is allied with Hamas, Islamic Jihad militants have at times ignored the truce. Reuters contributed to this report |