Israel-Palestine flare up: Israel killed the head of Islamic Jihad’s rocket force and his deputy, in an operation that has cost 30 lives in Gaza including women and children. On the other side, Palestinian cross-border rocket salvoes inflicted a first fatality in Israel on Thursday.
While Egypt continues mediation efforts, neither side seemed ready to douse the worst flare-up since August last year. “We are at the height of a campaign, both offensive and defensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a videotaped statement issued during a visit to an air base. “Whoever comes to harm us – his blood is forfeit.”
Five commanders killed
Five senior commanders of Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad, including Ali Ghali and Ahmed Abu Daqqa, have died since Israel began its strike on Gaza early on Tuesday. Two gunmen from a splinter group died in a separate strike on Thursday. The identities of two men killed elsewhere were not immediately clear. Four women and six children have also died.
But Islamic Jihad, the second-biggest armed group in Gaza after the ruling Hamas Islamists, kept up volleys of rockets. “We will not retreat and the assassinations will only make us stronger. Our revenge continues,” it said in a communique.
The hundreds of rockets launched have set off sirens as far north as Tel Aviv. Some 1.5 million Israelis – 16% of the population – have been ordered to shelters, military spokesperson Rear-Admiral Daniel Hagari said.
While Iron Dome and David’s Sling interceptors have shot down 96% of rockets engaged, according to the military, one hit a residential building in Rehovot on Thursday. Medics said an elderly man was killed, the first person killed in Israel in the latest round of fighting, and five other people were wounded.
International calls for ceasefire
The latest escalation has drawn international calls for a ceasefire after more than a year of resurgent Israeli-Palestinian violence. More than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have died since January.
But Cairo, which hosted senior Islamic Jihad official Mohammad al-Hindi for talks, was not very positive.
“Egypt’s efforts to calm things down and resume the political process have not yet borne fruit,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told reporters.
Meeting Jordanian, French and German counterparts in Berlin, Shoukry urged “peace-sponsoring countries to intervene and stop the attacks” and said Israel must “stop the unilateral measures that aim to destroy the future of the Palestinian state”.
Islamic Jihad spurns coexistence with Israel and preaches its destruction. Among terms for a truce, it wants an end to Israeli strikes against its leaders. Israel has rejected that.
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