As a new round of escalation in the Israel-Gaza conflict raged over the weekend, it was Palestinians who were most harmed by their own terror groups’ rockets. A rocket misfired by the Islamic Jihad group on Saturday night fell short of Israel and instead hit a home in the Jabalya neighborhood in Gaza, killing at least four children. The IDF Twitter page posted a detailed map based on radar of the incident, showing not only where the Palestinian terrorists fired the rockets and where they landed inside of Gaza, but also that the IDF had not targeted the northern Gaza Strip area for more than two hours and in a completely different section from the tragedy. The IDF post noted that the incident also resulted in the injuries of more than a dozen Palestinians.
“Islamic Jihad is killing Palestinian children in Gaza. One in four rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel lands inside the Gaza Strip,” said Keren Hajioff, International Spokeswoman for Prime Minister Yair Lapid, in a press statement. “Iran’s proxies—including Islamic Jihad—have a long history of hiding behind civilians to target Israeli civilians. The world should be outraged at this terrorist group targeting innocent Israelis and killing innocent Gazans.
“Israel will continue to stand up to this vicious terrorist organization—which threatens Israelis and Palestinians alike.”
Another post on the IDF Twitter page also published video of the rockets being launched and landing inside of Gaza, further documenting it was done by Palestinian terrorists, while a separate tweet noted that as of Sunday morning, more than 120 rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists had landed inside Gaza by mistake. The IDF contrasted that with their own missile defense system—the Iron Dome—which at the time had recorded a 97% success rate of intercepting rockets threatening Israeli civilians. Said the tweet, “The Iron Dome protects Israel. Islamic Jihad endangers Gaza.”
The misfired rockets were among hundreds of rockets fired at Israel just since Friday, after an extended period of relative calm in the Gaza area. This escalation was precipitated by a plot by Islamic Jihad terrorists to fire an anti-tank missile against Israel. The plot was apparently foiled as the terror cell was struck by the IDF, which also assassinated Islamic Jihad Northern Gaza Division Commander Taysir al-Jabari and began Operation Breaking Dawn. The IDF Twitter page noted that the operation was launched in response to an “imminent threat of attack against Israeli civilians.”
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a press release on Friday, “Today’s activity in Gaza was against concrete threats which disrupted daily routine in southern Israel. Israel isn’t interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but will not shy away from one either.”
That conflict has since expanded, with Palestinian terrorist rockets threatening Tel Aviv and the Jerusalem area according the IDF Twitter page, while Israel assassinated another Islamic Jihad leader, this time Southern Gaza Division Commander Khaled Mansour. During the fighting, it’s not only the terrorists who are dying, but Palestinian civilians as well. The Times of Israel reported that Israel said at least nine Palestinians have been killed by misfired Gaza rockets, including the children hit by the Islamic Jihad rocket in Jabalya.
The Israeli Public Diplomacy Directorate put out its own press release on the rocket incident, noting that an investigation had shown “unequivocally” that the rocket was fired by Palestinians and not Israel. “We have in our possession videos that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this incident was not the result of an Israel Defense Forces’ strike. Israeli security forces did not strike in Jabalya in the past few hours. It has been irrefutably proven that this incident was the result of the misfiring of a rocket launched by Islamic Jihad,” said the press statement.
Israel—which has their own civilians targeted by Gaza terrorists—considers the Palestinian deaths a tragedy as well.
“All fire by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization is a double war crime: It is shooting at civilians, and using Gazan civilians as human shields,” said the Public Diplomacy Directorate press statement. “This incident is an example of Islamic Jihad harming the residents of Gaza. All harm to innocent civilians is tragic.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, August 7, 2022)