As Israel Operation Breaking Dawn entered its third day on Sunday with dozens of Palestinian Islamic Jihad PIJ targets hit so far in the Gaza Strip by th
By John SolomouNicosia [Cyprus], August 8 (ANI): As Israel’s „Operation Breaking Dawn“ entered its third day on Sunday, with dozens of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) targets hit so far in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Army, to which Jihad responded by firing a barrage of rockets, casualties remain relatively low and the big question is whether Hamas, which is an organization much bigger and stronger than Jihad, will join the fray and the situation will escalate into a war.
Following several days of tension on Israel’s border with Gaza, Israel’s Defense Forces, acting on Shin Bet (security services) information about imminent attacks by the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad, launched a pre-emptive strike on Friday in which Taysir al-Jabari, Jihad’s top leader in northern Gaza was killed. An Israeli missile hit the Palestine Tower apartment building, burying al-Jabari under the rubble.
Jihad reacted by firing more than 450 rockets at nearby Israeli towns, the vast majority of which were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome Defense System. so far, Islamic Jihad’s rockets have not caused major casualties or damage.
Late on Saturday, Islamic Jihad leader in Southern Gaza Khaled Mansour was killed in another Israeli air strike, „neutralizing,“ as Oded Basiok, head of Israel’s army operations directorate said, „the senior leadership of the military wing of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza.“On the Palestinian side the casualties as of Sunday afternoon, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, were 31 Palestinians, including six children and four women, while another 260 people were injured. The UN has also reported that at least 31 families have been left homeless.
On the Israeli side, there were no deaths from the rockets fired by the Islamic Jihad, but several Israeli citizens were treated for injuries, most of them minor.
