Israeli security forces on Tuesday assassinated a commander of Islamic Jihad described by them as "a ticking bomb", leading to retaliatory attacks from the Gaza Strip that pushed major areas in Israel to closure and escalated tensions in the region.
A joint statement by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Israel's internal security agency, the Shin Bet, announced that Islamic Jihad leader Baha Abu al-Atta was neutralised in a targeted strike at around 4:30 am in an operation that was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The IDF also launched a missile attack at the home of an Islamic Jihad official in Damascus, Syria. Syrian state media said that the strike killed two, including the official’s son.
The Israeli action was followed by rocket and mortar strikes from the Gaza strip that reached as far as Tel Aviv. This, in turn, was followed by more Israeli strikes in Gaza, and a shutdown of scholos in surrounding regions.
Sirens were heard soon after the attack in areas from Gaza to Tel Aviv with a barrage of rockets, mortars and incendiary balloons making their way to Israel from the Gaza Strip.
In an unprecedented move since the 2014 Gaza war, the IDF Home Front Command announced that all schools were cancelled in all of the Dan region, including Tel Aviv, as well as the south. The IDF Home Front Command immediately ordered all schools and non-essential businesses closed in the following areas—the Gaza periphery; the Lachish region, the western Negev, the central Negev, the Shfela region, the Dan region, including Tel Aviv, and the Yarkon region bringing life to a standstill in major areas of the Jewish state. Bomb shelters were opened in central Israel and as far as Modi'in, next to Jerusalem. Tel Aviv was also preparing to open bomb shelters, an official announcement from the municipality said.
Taking to Twitter, the IDF defended their action, saying, “When terrorists fire rockets from #Gaza at Israeli civilians, they do so indiscriminately. What IDF fighter jets are about to do against Islamic Jihad in Gaza, is not.”
In another tweet, the IDF said, “Islamic Jihad continues to fire rockets at Israeli homes. Our tanks just targeted Islamic Jihad terror targets in #Gaza. Terror targets civilians. We target terror.”
The IDF added added that rocket attacks from Gaza began at 5.00 am and continued until 5.00 pm.
An Israeli missile is launched from the Iron Dome defence missile system in the southern Israeli town of Netivot on November 12, 2019, to intercept rocket launched from the nearby Palestinian Gaza Strip |AFP
An IDF spokesperson, reported by the Times of Israel, said that they expected retlation, and that the IDF was prepared for "several days of battle."
Meanwhile, Islamic Jihad leader Khaled Al-Batsh called the Israeli action a “declaration of war”. According to Reuters, Al-Batsh said at the funeral of Al-Atta, “Israel executed two coordinated attacks, in Syria and in Gaza, in a declaration of war.”
While Hamas has attempted to maintain a UN-brokered ceasefire, Islamic Jihad has intensified its rocket campaign against Israel in recent months. It is unclear whether Hamas joined in with the rocket fire on Tuesday, which is believed to have been conducted by Islamic Jihad forces. With ties to Islamic Jihad, Hamas faces a dilemma over whether to join in with the outfit in attacks on Israel—facing the threat of all-out war and possible disintegration of the Hamas regime.
According to the IDF, the operation that killed Al-Ata was approved by the Prime Minister. "[Ata] was behind multiple attacks and rocket launches against Israel in recent months and intended to carry new immediate attacks," the Army and Shin Bet said.
"The operation was recommended by the IDF Chief of Staff and the Shin Bet and approved by the Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, after it was presented and endorsed by (the security) cabinet," it said.
Ata and his wife were killed as they slept on the third floor of a building in Shejaiya district of Gaza City, Palestinian sources said.
Palestinian health officials said that four of their children and a neighbour were injured.
The Israeli Army, however, rejected speculations that the killing marked a return to Israel's policy of targeted assassinations.
IDF spokesperson, Brig Gen Hidai Zilberman, said the killing of the senior Islamic Jihad commander does not represent a return of the policy of targeted killings that saw Israel kill dozens of terror leaders in the last decade.
Ata headed the military council of the Al-Quds Brigade, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad. He commanded over the organisation's operations in northern Gaza, but also wielded great influence on the southern front.
Islamic Jihad threatened to respond forcefully to the assassination.
"We promise to continue the fight, and our response will undoubtedly come to shake the foundations of the Zionist entity," the organisation said, calling for general mobilization of its troops.
Militant faction Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, said that Israel bears all the responsibility for the consequences of the assassination of Abu Al-Ata.
"This crime committed by Israel will not pass silently, and will be met with retaliation by the resistance forces," it said.
The Secretary-General of Islamic Jihad, Ziad al-Nakhala, said that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has crossed all the red lines in the assassination of Abu al-Atta.
“We are going to war. Netanyahu has crossed all the red lines in the assassination of Al-Quds Brigades Commander Baha Abu al-Ata. We we will respond forcefully,” al-Nakhala told Dar al-Hayat, an Arabic-language news site.
The Israeli security cabinet was meeting in the morning to review the situation. Sources in Gaza said that Israel has also carried out several attacks in the coastal enclave following the rocket attacks from there.
With inputs from PTI
