Israel strikes at Islamic Jihad commanders, sparking reprisal rockets
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Version 3 of 9. Commander killed in Gaza and political leader targeted in Syria, in sudden surge of violence Israel has launched airstrikes against two senior figures from the militant group Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Syria, in rare targeted assassination attempts that immediately prompted rounds of retaliatory rocket fire from Gaza. Baha Abu al-Ata, a 42-year-old Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander, was killed with his wife in their home in Gaza city, the Iran-backed group said in a statement. Two other people 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 Defence 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 the prime minister had signed off on the killing, which came 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 said Israel fired three missiles at the home of an Islamic Jihad political leader, Akram Al-Ajouri. He survived, but his son and granddaughter were killed, state media said. Photos from Damascus’s Mazze neighbourhood showed damage to a two-storey building. Unlike the attack in Gaza, for which Israel claimed responsibility, 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. The sudden surge in violence looked to awaken Israel’s increasingly open conflict with Iran and its proxies in the region. The Israeli government has been criticised by southern border residents for its relative inaction in response to recent militant attacks. The cabinet was holding an emergency meeting to discuss further action in Tel Aviv. Targeted assassinations against enemy factions, once a mainstay of Israeli policy, have been largely abandoned in recent years as they often served to raise 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, and 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 |