BICOM

After a day of renewed rocket fire from Gaza and Israeli retaliatory strikes, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad organisation, the main terrorist group engaged in rocket launching over the last days, yesterday announced that the organisation would now abide by the ceasefire agreed upon on Sunday by Hamas, the Popular Resistance Committees and other smaller groups. Islamic Jihad spokesman Nasiz Azzam said that the organisation’s compliance with the lull would commence at 1pm today (26/8). Azzam noted that the new ceasefire had been achieved through Egyptian mediation. Hamas officials later confirmed the new lull. More than 15 rockets and missiles were fired at Israel in the course of the day yesterday.

It remains to be seen whether the latest statement from Islamic Jihad will in practice return quiet to the south. Hours earlier, the group issued a diametrically opposing statement, vowing revenge after Israeli aircraft successfully targeted an Islamic Jihad rocket launching team in south western Gaza, as it prepared to launch rockets at Israel. Two Islamic Jihad terrorists were killed. So far Israel has focused its response on targeting individuals involved in rocket fire, rather than wider strikes in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu has also resisted calls from opposition and some Likud MKs to launch a large-scale operation.  

In related news, according to a senior official in Jerusalem quoted in Harretz, Defence Minister Ehud Barak last week before the terrorist attacks on the Egyptian border decided not to authorise a preemptive strike against the Popular Resistance Committee group. Barak feared that such a move would spark a serious conflagration in the Gaza Strip. The senior official, quoted in the report, said the recommendation followed precise intelligence on an effort to launch a terror attack out of Sinai.