Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group primarily based in Gaza, was the goal of Israeli airstrikes early Tuesday, and was on the heart of a flare-up in violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip final summer time.
What’s Islamic Jihad?
The second-largest Palestinian armed resistance group in Gaza, Islamic Jihad has typically been eclipsed by the bigger Hamas motion, which has managed and ruled Gaza since 2007.
Islamic Jihad was based within the Nineteen Eighties within the Gaza Strip to combat the Israeli occupation and maintains a presence in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution.
Iran helps each teams with funding and weapons, and Israel and america listing each as terrorist organizations.
Why is Israel concentrating on Islamic Jihad?
The Israeli army mentioned on Tuesday that it had focused and killed three Islamic Jihad leaders that it mentioned had been accountable for rocket assaults towards Israel and different assaults towards Israeli residents within the occupied West Financial institution.
The three males killed have been: Khalil Bahitini, the commander of the group’s northern Gaza Strip area; Tareq Ezzedine, one other senior chief of the group, and Jihad Al-Ghanam, the secretary of the group’s army council.
Islamic Jihad referred to as the killings “an assassination” and mentioned that among the wives and kids of the lads had additionally been killed.
“We affirm that the blood of the martyrs will enhance our resolve, and we is not going to depart our positions, and the resistance will proceed,” it mentioned in a press release.
The group vowed to retaliate towards Israel.
What’s the relationship between Islamic Jihad and Hamas?
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are sometimes united towards their widespread enemy, Israel. They’re an important members of the joint operations room which coordinates most army exercise among the many numerous armed teams within the tiny coastal enclave of Gaza.
However at occasions it’s a tense relationship, particularly when Hamas has exerted stress on Islamic Jihad to cease assaults or retaliation towards Israel.
Islamic Jihad typically acts independently of Hamas and is targeted totally on army confrontations. This has at occasions drawn Hamas into battle. On different events, Hamas has stayed on the sidelines as Islamic Jihad has clashed with Israel.
What occurred final summer time?
Three days of fierce cross-border assaults between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza in August resulted in an Egyptian-mediated cease-fire after probably the most intense spherical of Israeli-Palestinian preventing in additional than a yr.
The Israeli army started the hostilities when it assassinated a frontrunner of Islamic Jihad with missile strikes, saying it was performing to thwart an imminent assault. It hit targets within the Gaza Strip from the air, land and sea. Islamic Jihad responded with about 1,100 rockets and mortar shells towards Israeli territory, the army mentioned.
No less than 44 Palestinians have been killed within the preventing, 15 of them youngsters, and 360 individuals have been injured, with 20 of them in critical situation, the Ministry of Well being in Gaza mentioned on the time.
