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IDF aircraft strike ‘Hamas sites’ in Gaza following Islamic Jihad threats

[ssba]

Israeli fighter aircraft again struck at facilities maintained by terrorist organisations in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip yesterday. The strike came after the Islamic Jihad organisation vowed revenge following the killing of a movement operative by a missile fired from a plane earlier in the day yesterday. The Islamic Jihad operative, Mohammed Najjar, 24, was described by security sources as a leading activist, who had been involved in the planning of a major attack at the time of his death. The ‘Al-Quds Brigades’ of Islamic Jihad, the movement’s paramilitary wing, said in a statement that their ‘martyrs’ blood will not be spilled in vein.’

Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees group are the two organisations currently responsible for the majority of mortar and rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Both groups are currently rejecting instructions from the Hamas authorities to cease the attacks, saying they do not recognise the tacit ceasefire which has largely held since Operation Cast Lead in early 2009. In his speech the foreign press corps last night, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that Hamas and the other organisations in Gaza ‘shelling and rocketing Israel’ will ‘make a terrible mistake to test our will to defend our people.’