Top lines:
- After waiting 35 hours to respond to the targeting of three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders, PIJ have fired over 500 rockets towards southern Israel in the last 24 hours.
- As of this morning of the 500+ rockets, 368 crossed into Israel, of those 150 were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system while more than 100 fell short and landed inside the Gaza Strip.
- With the Iron Dome achieving 96 per cent success rate, no Israelis have been killed or seriously wounded. There were several direct hits on property in Sderot, Ashkelon and Netivot
- So far Hamas has approved and aided PIJ (including the operation of a join war room) but have not taken an active role in firing rockets, therefore the IDF has stuck to targeting PIJ assets.
- The IDF responded by attacking 158 PIJ targets inside the Gaza Strip including launch sites and launchers, rocket manufacturing facilities and other military targets
- In the early hours the Israeli Air Force targeted a fourth senior PIJ commander Ali Ghassan Ghali. He was the commander of their rocket units and was killed while hiding in an apartment in Khan Yunis. Two other PIJ operatives were killed alongside him.
- In an operational first, a missile directed at Tel Aviv was successfully intercepted by the David’s Sling system. This system is the second rung of Israel’s multiple layered defence between the Iron Dome and the Arrow system.
- According to Palestinian sources 25 Gazans have been killed, of those four were senior PIJ commanders, and at least a further 6 PIJ combatants. Four others were armed combatants affiliated with the PFLP and involved in firing rockets. There were 10 non-combatants killed in the initial surprise strike (see below). Another Gazan died from what appeared to be a PIJ rocket failing to cross the border.
Talk of ceasefire:
- The indirect talks are once again being led by Egypt.
- Yesterday there was already speculation that PIJ was ready for a ceasefire.
- However others cautioned that they would not stop without inflicting more serious damage.
- Reports suggest that Israel would not commit to terms restricting them from carrying out more targeted assassinations in the future.
- IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari said that the IDF would not address a ceasefire until it went into effect. He said that the Home Front Command’s guidelines for communities in 40kn range would remain in effect at least until tomorrow.
- Egyptian officials conveyed messages to Israel that PIJ did not want to escalate the fighting and that the current round of violence could be ended within a matter of hours.
Leaders’ comments:
- Prime Minister Netanyahu said last night in a public statement that the development of advanced intelligence and operational capabilities has made it possible for Israel to attack the leaders of the terror organisations at any given moment.
- Netanyahu said: “Our message to the terrorist leaders is clear: a new equation has been created. We see you wherever you are, and you can’t hide. We will choose where and when to attack you.”
- The UK’s Minister for the Middle East, Lord Tariq Ahmad said: “All countries, including Israel have a legitimate right to self-defence”, adding: ”where there is evidence of excessive force we advocate for swift and transparent investigations”, before stressing that along with foreign secretary James Cleverly, “want to see a de-escalation and a willingness for dialogue from all sides.”
Key indicators to look out for:
- If Hamas decide to join fray, this could extend the fighting.
- Without inflicting harm (fatalities) PIJ do not want to stop.
- Israel hopes to keep the focus on the Gaza Strip, whist PIJ (and Hamas) may try to extend the remit to the West Bank and Jerusalem, possibly even among Israeli Arabs and rocket fire from Lebanon.
From the Commentators:
In Yediot Ahronot, Avi Issacharoff comments that “it hardly came as a surprise that Hamas decided not to join the fighting against Israel and left Islamic Jihad to wallow on its own in its blood and rockets in yet another limited battle against the Zionist enemy…. It is almost a win-win situation: Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets yesterday at Israel with Hamas’s permission and encouragement via what is dubbed their “joint operations room.” Hamas was thus able to partially pay lip service and to prevent it from being cast as a collaborator or a traitor, which is what would have happened had it clashed directly with Islamic Jihad and stopped it from firing at Israel. At the same time, the IDF, Shin Bet and the entire State of Israel focused in the last few days on one enemy only, an enemy that is Hamas’s political rival—Islamic Jihad. In other words, Israel is weakening an organization that challenges the ruling organization in the Gaza Strip and is in competition with it. Israel on the one side and Islamic Jihad on the other fought one another while Hamas remained unscathed and out of the fray, even though it had permitted—and not by merely looking the other way—rocket fire at Israel. Nevertheless, Hamas will pay a certain price for its decision to abstain from fighting. Hamas’s image as a “resistance” movement has been somewhat eroded. The majority of the Palestinian public recognizes that Hamas would prefer quiet in Gaza over another round of fighting that would produce nothing….The strike on Islamic Jihad’s leaders, without the operation devolving into full-scale war, will be viewed by the majority of the Israeli public as an Israeli victory, and rightfully so. The only side that will emerge defeated and humiliated, if the fighting ends now, will be Islamic Jihad.”
In Haaretz, Amos Harel writes, “the lack of any real casualties has provided Israel with an opportunity to end this round of fighting on a high note. Because the Palestinians haven’t succeeded in inflicting any real damage so far, they probably won’t agree to a speedy ceasefire…The Palestinian organizations adopted their own version of “We’ll respond when and where we see fit,” the famous promise of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir after Iraqi Scud missiles landed in central Israel during the First Gulf War in 1991. By mistake, the Palestinians discovered a kind of: How to make the Israelis anxious without pulling the trigger…. Clearly, if Palestinian casualties continue to rise and Israel’s bombing campaign is prolonged, Hamas could be pushed to participate in the rocket onslaught itself. The bottom line is that Israel’s strategy has remained more or less the same since the end of Operation Guardian of the Walls, which began exactly two years ago. Despite the many changes in government, it has remained almost unchanged: Israel prefers to clash with Islamic Jihad rather than to confront Hamas directly. To ensure that the larger and more dangerous organization remains relatively quiet, Israel is willing to ignore the times when it contributes to the fighting in a limited way, enables the entry of Qatari money to the Gaza Strip (about $30 million a month), and permits 17,000 laborers from Gaza to enter Israel, bringing in almost another $40 million into the Strip).”
In Israel Hayom, Yoav Limor comments that “a quick review of Operation Shield and Arrow yields three immediate conclusions. The first is that Islamic Jihad was dealt a serious blow once again with the assassination of its top officials and the damage to its operational and arms production capabilities. The second is that Islamic Jihad failed to exact a price from Israel either in the Gaza periphery or by means of rocket fire deep into Israeli territory. The third is that Hamas stayed out of the fighting and effectively prevented it from expanding further, leaving Islamic Jihad to cope on its own with the repercussions of the bonfire that it lit, and allowed for the current round of fighting to be concluded relatively quickly. That organization [PIJ] tried to create linkage between Judea and Samaria and Gaza, translating every death in the West Bank into immediate revenge rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Israel has made it clear to Islamic Jihad the price that it will pay for trying to do that…By the bye, Israel exhausted its bank of Islamic Jihad targets in terms of senior operatives who can be marked for assassination and other objectives (ranging from arms production sites to launching pits), while executing precise attacks and refraining from killing either Hamas operatives or civilians (except in the opening strike), so as not to draw the largest organization in the Gaza Strip into a fight that was liable then to escalate… Hamas does not want to join the war at present or, more accurately, it does not want Islamic Jihad to draw it into fighting a war. Hamas will fight (if at all) for its own reasons, and at a timing that works for it.”
Recap:
- Israel felt it had unfinished business, most recently on May 2nd when over 100 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel.
- On May 9 At 02:00, three simultaneous strikes; two in Gaza City, the third in the Rafah on the Egyptian border.
- Two bombs hit the fifth and sixth floors of a six-story building in the Ramal neighbourhood of Gaza City. On the sixth floor, Dr. Jamal Khaswan, 52, his wife Mirfat, 44, and their son Yusef, 18, were killed. On the fifth floor, senior Islamic Jihad leader Tarek Izz a-Din, 51, and his two children, Ali, 5, and Mayar, 7, were killed.
- At the same time, Israeli warplanes dropped two bombs on a two-story building in the a-Shaaf neighbourhood in Gaza City (the home of the al-Bahatini family), resulting in the deaths of Khalil al-Bahtini, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad, 44, his wife Lila al-Bahatini, 42, and their daughter Hajar, 4. Also killed in this attack were 19-year-old Dania Ades and her 17-year-old sister Iman, who lived the adjacent apartment.
- At the same time, the house of the al-Ghanam family in the Janina neighborhood of Rafah was attacked with three GBU39 type bombs, which caused the death of the senior Islamic Jihad leader Jihad al-Ghanam, 62, and his wife Wafa al-Ghanam, also 62 years old. In this attack, six others were injured, including al-Ghanam’s son.
The three commanders killed:
Khalil Bahitini – Senior Operational Officer of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza
- Responsible for the rocket fire towards Israel from Gaza last month.
- Responsible for approving and carrying out terrorist actions from Northern Gaza into Israel.
- Member of the PIJ’s military council in Gaza and in direct contact with the PIJ’s political bureau.
Tarek Az Aldin – Senior Operative and Coordinator of Terrorism in Gaza and the West Bank
- In charge of the coordination between Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Islamic Jihad in the West Bank.
- Arranged money transfers for planning and carrying out terrorist acts and coordinated terrorist acts on Israeli civilians.
- Was planning and coordinating multiple future attacks on Israeli civilians.
Jahed Ahnam – Military Council Secretary
- One of the most senior members of the PIJ.
- Previously served as Commanding Officer of Islamic Jihad’s Southern Gaza division and Head of the Military Council.
- Coordinated weapons and money transfers between the PIJ and Hamas .
- Worked largely in promoting destructive terrorism in Gaza, the West Bank and around the world.
