Israel has unleashed ongoing rounds of airstrikes in Gaza city. The health ministry of Gaza has reported 44 injuries and 9 casualties thus far, including a five year old child and Taysir al-Jabari, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander.
The Israeli military has confessed to taking out the attacks in response to alleged threats from the Palestinian militant group in Gaza. The attacks began just days after the detainment of senior PIJ leader Bassam al-Saadi in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. The arrest augmented tensions between the two oppositions.
Bassam al-Saadi was seized on Monday, August 1st, and held in Jenin while investigations and arrest operations were carried out regarding a wave of attacks by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, with two suspected to reside in Jenin. These attacks supposedly left 17 Israelis dead.
Following the arrest of Bassam al-Saadi, the PIJ senior leader, Israel closed multiple borders and roads around Gaza to brace for a potential retaliation from Palestine. The Karam Abu Salem commercial crossing, the only passage needed for fuel delivery for Gaza’s sole power plant, was amongst the closed infrastructures.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said the strikes were mainly targeting Taysir al-Jabari and others sites linked to the PIJ, to prevent his influence from arousing Palestinian Jihadist in response to the apprehension of al-Saadi. The PIJ had reportedly threatened to retaliate by bombing central Israel.
“Let anyone who rises up to harm Israel know that we will get to them. Our security forces will act against Islamic Jihad terrorists to remove the threat from the citizens of Israel”–Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Palestinian officials and political analysts are blaming the US for providing Israel the capital and support needed to execute attacks of this capacity on Palestine over the past decades.
The US ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides was not reluctant to voice his sentiment in the midst of the conflict to say, “the United States firmly believes that Israel has the right to protect itself. We are engaging with different parties and urge all parties to remain calm”–the ambassador posted on Twitter.
PIJ secretary general Ziyad al-Nakhala said while on a visit to Tehran, the Iranian capital: “we will respond forcefully to this aggression, and there will be a fight in which our people will win..there are no red lines for this battle… and Tel Aviv will be under the rockets of the resistance.”
According to BBC news, Israel’s Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked told channel 12 news, “ We don’t know how this will play out… but this could take time… This could be a lengthy round [of conflict] and a hard one.”
Israel is continuing the intense wave of attacks on Palestine and will not cease until the operations cover their intended grounds. The conflict is predictably going to worsen in the following days as Palestinians are ready to strike back full throttle.