The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has launched almost 600 ‘rockets’ against Israel since Friday, according to data released this Sunday by the Israeli army, which, in turn, attacked some 140 targets of the group in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army reported that at least 585 ‘rockets’ were launched from Gaza by the Islamic Jihad group since the current peak of tension began, causing 29 deaths so far – all Palestinians – and more than 250 injuries.
Of the total projectiles launched from Gaza, 470 crossed Israel and 115 fell inside the Strip itself before passing through the fence that separates the territories.
So far, Israel has suffered few attacks on populated areas, mainly because, according to the army, the ‘Iron Dome’ air defense system has a success rate of 97%, intercepting 185 of the launched rockets. The rest fell in unpopulated areas of the country.
While most of the projectiles fired were aimed at Israeli communities along the Gaza border, shots were also fired towards Tel Aviv on Saturday and towards Jerusalem today, although all were intercepted before reaching their destination.
The army also said it had bombed 139 Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, including facilities where the Palestinian group said weapons were manufactured and stored, sites where ‘rockets’ were launched and a network of tunnels allegedly used by the cluster.
These attacks killed at least nine members of the Jihad militia, including Khaled Mansur and Taysir al-Jabari, the top commanders of its armed wing.
For its part, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said that among the dead are six children and four women.
Five of the children died on Saturday night after a projectile hit northern Gaza, in an incident that Israel said was a failed rocket launch by Islamic Jihad, which in turn blamed the army. Israeli from the attack.
The current spike in tension began after the arrest, on Monday, of the top leader of the Islamic Jihad organization in the West Bank, Bassem Saadi.
Faced with rumors about the possibility of retaliatory armed actions from the Palestinian enclave, Israel launched a preventive attack against jihad targets in Gaza.
The Palestinian movement Hamas remains, for the time being, on the sidelines of the conflict, which has managed to contain its intensity, but has already condemned Israel, considering that it is “again committing crimes”.
Israel and armed groups in Gaza have been fighting several conflicts, the last of which took place in May 2021 and lasted 11 days, resulting in the deaths of 260 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
Source: Observadora
