News Digest — 5/11/23
IDF Strikes Islamic Jihad Mortar Launcher In Northern Gaza, Kills Rocket Commander
The IDF struck a mortar launcher belonging to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist movement near Beit Lahiya, killing PIJ rocket commander Ali Ghali in the northern Gaza Strip as Operation Shield and Arrow continued on Thursday morning (11th).
The IDF additionally struck a lookout near Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip and a lookout near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip according to Palestinian reports. Shortly after the strikes, rocket sirens sounded in communities near the Gaza border.
The strikes came shortly after six mortars were fired from Gaza toward Kissufim, near the Gaza border.
Since Operation Shield and Arrow was launched on Tuesday morning (9th), over 500 rockets have been fired from Gaza toward Israel, with over 100 (about one in five) falling short in the Strip. 154 of the rockets have been intercepted by the IDF.
During failed rocket launches by PIJ, Varami Shadi Hamdan, aged 16, and Muhammad al-Shabaki, aged 51 from Beit Hanoun were killed. And, in Gaza City, Lynn Balal Ubed Elsalam Loch, aged 10, and Yazen Juda Alian aged 16, were killed as a result of a failed rocket launch by a PIJ terror cell located in the city.
(jpost.com; isnn.com)
‘We, Not The Terrorists, Will Choose The Time And Place,’ Netanyahu Says; ‘Campaign Is Not Yet Over’
“We are in the midst of a campaign. At this very moment our forces are fiercely attacking the Gaza Strip and exacting a heavy price from the terrorist organizations,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement to Israeli citizens Wednesday evening (10th).
Throughout the afternoon on Wednesday, (10th) PIJ fired hundreds of missiles at southern and central Israel, including Tel Aviv. There were no casualties, but homes in Sderot and a kindergarten in the Eshkol region were hit. Also, several people were reportedly treated for anxiety.
The Iron Dome System intercepted most of the rockets. In Tel Aviv, the new David’s Sling System repelled an attack.
“Egypt approached us with a request for a ceasefire – the issue will be examined,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said in an interview with Kan News.
Meanwhile, Gaza terrorists continued firing massive barrages of rockets throughout the evening.
“I would like to reiterate: Whoever harms us, whoever sends terrorists against us, will pay the price,” Netanyahu declared.
“This principle, that whoever attacks us and tires to attack us will pay the price, was significantly strengthened today in Operation Shield and Arrow,” he continued. “The development of new technological capabilities, and the parallel development of new operational capabilities, in combination with our initiative, is creating a new equation.”
“We say to the terrorists and whoever dispatches terrorists: We see you everywhere. You cannot hide. We will choose the time and place to attack you. We will choose, not you; not just in response, but in times of calm – the choice is ours.”
“Up to now, we have inflicted upon Islamic Jihad in Gaza the hardest blow in its history. Within mere seconds, two seconds, in the middle of the night, at three separate locations, we simultaneously eliminated the terrorist organization’s leaders. We hit its anti-tank units, its arsenals and its rocket production facilities.”
“In response to our actions, Islamic Jihad has launched rockets at Israel. A quarter of the rockets, maybe close to a third, fell on their territory. The decisive majority of the rockets were intercepted by our defensive systems.”
“I would like to commend here the Defense Ministry and the security establishment for also developing the new systems that were brought into action today.”
“Fortunately, as of now, no Israeli citizen has been wounded. I ask that all Israeli citizens continue following the directives of IDF Home Front Command. You are doing this so well, and it really does save lives.”
“Over the last few months, we have taken action against over 20 terrorists,” Netanyahu said.
“I would like to thank the IDF, the ISA and the security establishment for working together around the clock on both defense and offense. I would like to thank the citizens of Israel for the full backing and confidence that they are giving our action. I would like to thank the residents of the south, whose local council heads I spoke with today.”
“The campaign is not yet over. We will continue to update you. We entered this together. We will get through this together and we will win together,” he concluded.
(kan.org.il; worldisraelnews.com)
Hamas Gave Greenlight For Rocket Fire But Stayed Out Of Fighting
Hamas gave Palestinian Islamic Jihad a greenlight to fire a barrage of rockets at Israel on Wednesday (10th).
A Palestinian source with a connection to the Gaza Coordinating Room, the local headquarters for terrorist groups to plan their strategy, told TPS it was surprising that PIJ had rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
Hamas came under heavy pressure for not joining PIJ in firing rockets in August 2022. During a 55-hour period, terrorists in Gaza launched about 1,000 rockets at Israel in response to the arrest of the group’s leader in Judea and Samaria, Bassem Saadi, on August 1.
That conflict did not win Islamic Jihad broad support. Many in Gaza were angered when 120 rockets misfired, often landing inside the Strip, and in some cases killing Palestinian civilians.
On Tuesday (9th), Israel launched surprise airstrikes on Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets, including killing three of the terror group’s senior figures. Military positions belonging to Islamic Jihad were struck, including a rocket factory and a facility that produced concrete components for terror tunnels, the IDF said.
The strikes on the Islamic Jihad leaders come against the backdrop of a rocket barrage fired by the terrorist group following the death of Khader Adnan on May 2.
The imprisoned Adnan, a senior Islamic Jihad figure, died after an 86-day hunger strike. The terror group had threatened throughout Adnan’s hunger strike that it would hold Israel responsible for its member’s death even though Israel offered Adnan medical intervention, which he refused.
(tps.co.il; worldisraelnews.com)
Shin Bet Chief: Israel Thwarted Attempt To Produce Rockets In Jenin
Israel thwarted an attempted plan by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) cell to produce rockets and a launcher in Jenin in the northern West Bank in recent weeks, Shin Bet head Ronen Bar revealed during a press conference on Tuesday evening (9th).
Bar stressed that Tareq Ezzaldin, a spokesperson for the PIJ who was assassinated by the IDF in the Gaza Strip early Tuesday morning (9th), had been attempting to replicate terrorist capabilities in Gaza to the West Bank and Israel.
According to Bar, Ezzaldin directly organized 20 terrorist cells who aimed to murder Israelis, including the cell that attempted to produce rockets. Ezzaldin provided the cells with knowledge and funding.
“We have no intention of turning Afula or Shaked into a target for indirect fire,” said the Shin Bet chief. “Most of the activity to thwart these cells is not known to the public, but it is known to us and the risk is known to us and illustrated every day.”
Ezzaldin additionally recruited a number of individuals from the Ramallah area and provided them with funds to purchase weapons, including a quadcopter to use in attacks against Israeli civilians. The terrorist cell recruited by Ezzaldin was arrested by Israeli security services, while thwarting an attack.
Bar stressed that these thwarted cells are just a few examples of Ezzaldin’s “terrorist enterprise,” adding “we have no intention of waiting defensively for threats, but are always acting on the offensive against those sending them, in the Kasbah in Nablus, as happened again Tuesday morning (9th), in Gaza City and anywhere else in the Middle East.”
“It is important to say, the PIJ is an organization that is fully funded by Iran. The hands are the hands of Palestinians, the voice is the voice of Iran.”
Bar’s statements came during a press conference after a meeting of the security cabinet concerning Operation Shield and Arrow, which convened after the IDF assassinated three senior PIJ terrorists in Gaza on Tuesday morning (9th).
The three were killed almost simultaneously, within minutes of each other by a mix of around 40 aircraft and drones.
New Resolution: EU Parliament ‘Deplores’ Palestinian Textbook Incitement
The European Parliament on Wednesday (10th) condemned incitement and antisemitism in textbooks in Palestinian schools, some of which receive EU funding.
The resolution, which passed for the fourth year in a row, calls on the EU to freeze funding for the Palestinian Authority until the textbooks are aligned with UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance. The European Commission has largely ignored previous resolutions, the new resolution said.
“The resolution ‘deplores’ the problematic and hateful material in Palestinian school textbooks and study cards which still has not been removed.”
The legislators linked the increase in terrorism in recent months to Palestinian education and textbooks.
“Education and pupils’ access to peaceful and unbiased textbooks is essential, especially in the context of the rising implication of teenagers in terrorist attacks,” the resolution said.
This year’s resolution emphasized the need to remove antisemitic references and examples more than past versions.
Hateful content “has still not been removed,” the resolution said, despite claims to the contrary by the PA, and therefore, the European Parliament “requests the Commission to closely scrutinize that the PA modifies the full curriculum expeditiously.”
The European Parliament voted down five attempts to remove the resolution, overcoming a lobbying campaign by the PA delegation to Brussels and pro-Palestinian NGOs.
Last week in Brussels, European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi promised Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that the EU would make sure it is not funding Palestinian textbooks that incite against Israel, and that the EU would fund a further study into incitement and antisemitism in the books.
The EU withheld its funding to the PA for 13 months, starting in May 2021, over incitement to violence in textbooks in its EU-aided education system.
“Partial conditionality to ensure the removal of antisemitic content in Palestinian textbooks is not just about effectiveness, it is about morality,” MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou said.
According to Marcus Sheff, CEO of IMPACT-se, which analyzes textbooks in the Middle East, “The Palestinian Authority lobbied hard in Brussels against this resolution, but found itself up against the hard reality of its hateful school curriculum and the anger and frustration of European Parliament members with a Palestinian national strategy of inciting schoolchildren to hate and violence on their dime, year after year.”
Incitement in education “has murderous consequences,” he said.
Among the examples of incitement in Palestinian textbooks listed in an EU study from 2019, released to the public in 2021, is the promotion of “resistance,” such as demonstrating Newton’s second law with Palestinians using slingshots to strike at Israeli soldiers.
Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the terrorist cell that hijacked an Israeli bus in 1978 and murdered 38 Israelis, is repeatedly referred to with the context of female empowerment, and there are “no further portraits of significant female figures in Palestinian history,” implying that “the path of violence is the only option for women to demonstrate an outstanding commitment to their people and country,” the resolution said.
