RTWed, 13 Nov 2019 17:23 UTC
© Reuters/Mohammed SalemA Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant stands guard at the scene of an Israeli strike that killed the group's field commander Baha Abu Al-Atta in Gaza City November 12, 2019.
A strike on a Damascus home belonging to an Islamic Jihad official has killed the man's son, in what appears to be part of an Israeli operation to assassinate leaders of the Palestinian militant group in Gaza and Syria.
Islamic Jihad issued a statement on Tuesday confirming the attack, identifying the official as Akram al-Ajouri. A separate missile strike reportedly hit a civilian building near the Lebanese Embassy in the western district of the capital that is home to Damascus University and several diplomatic missions.
The group did not immediately accuse anyone of carrying out the strike, although it occurred shortly after an Israeli attack killed a top Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza.
Israel braced for retaliatory attacks after carrying out the strikes. Air sirens sounded in central Israel, warning of possible rocket attacks from Gaza.
Twitter users shared videos showing a rocket exploding right on the highway.
Videos posted to social media appear to show rockets in the skies above Israel.
In targeted areas, schools were closed and all non-essential work halted.
The IDF launched an additional attack at 'Islamic Jihad' targets in Gaza less than an hour after reporting its tanks had devastated several targets, claiming Israel was under fire by rockets sent by the group.
In an earlier strike on Gaza, the IDF claimed to have taken out two Islamic Jihad operatives as they were "prepar[ing] to fire more rockets," in a tweet accompanied by hashtag #JiHadEnough. The Israeli military accused the group of firing "dozens of rockets" into Israel, many of which were reportedly intercepted by the country's Iron Dome missile defense system.
At least two Palestinians were killed and two more injured in an Israeli airstrike on eastern al-Shejaya in Gaza, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Comment: Israel did not confine its attacks to Gaza, but also
attacked the neighborhood of the Lebanese Embassy in Syria, where two people were killed and six wounded:
A suspected missile strike hit a civilian building near the Lebanese Embassy in the western district of the capital that is home to Damascus University and many diplomatic premises late on Monday night. It is not yet clear who is behind the attack.
A number of photos emerged on social media depicting the aftermath of the strike, which appears to have damaged at least one building, which also caught fire.
Some users online speculated that Israel may have carried out the strike as the attack allegedly come from the Lebanese airspace, which had previously been violated by the IAF on numerous occasions to bomb targets inside Syria. Israel neither confirms nor denies "foreign media reports" of its cross border strikes as part of a long-standing information policy.
Rockets were
launched into Israel in response to Akram al-Ajouri.'s assassination:
Islamic Jihad has vowed revenge, and seems to have received the support of Hamas, the group that currently rules Gaza. Israel has warned Hamas not to get involved, RT's Paula Slier reported from Jerusalem.
Some of the rockets fired into Israel from Gaza have reportedly been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, but many managed to come through as well. There have been no reports of Israeli casualties as of yet.
Slier says the strikes on two leaders indicate "a resumption in the israeli policy of targeted assassinations." Since the August 2014 assassination of senior Hamas commander Raed al-Attar, Israel has only admitted to one other targeted killing, that of Hamed Ahmed Abed Khudari in May this year.
Bibi is attempting to hang on to relevance
with murder:
On 10 September, rockets fired in the direction of Ashdod and nearby Ashkelon, reportedly orchestrated from Gaza by Islamic Jihad chief al-Ata, triggered sirens that forced Netanyahu to interrupt a campaign speech and rush off the stage in order to take shelter.
Although the Israeli prime minister later returned to continue the address, he was reportedly frustrated by the incident, which happened just a week before the Knesset election on 17 September, and forced his security officials to proceed with an operation to eliminate Baha Abu al-Ata. It was, however, reported that military commanders forced Netanyahu to postpone the operation, fearing too many civilian deaths.
The plan to target al-Ata was then reportedly discussed by Israeli ministers several times following the 10 September attack and approved on 3 November, but the Cabinet was forced to delay the operation after Education Minister from the hardline party Jewish Home Rafi Peretz hinted at the plan, openly discussing the idea of reviving targeted killings. The Cabinet's final decision to kill the Islamic Jihad commander was then reportedly made on 10 November.
The IDF announced via Twitter, on 12 November, that Gaza-based Jihadist commander Baha Abu al-Ata had been killed as a result of an Israeli military strike on his home in the early hours of Tuesday, targeting only the specific room where the militant and his wife were sleeping, thus leaving other parts of the building intact. An IDF spokesman later said that al-Ata was "a ticking bomb" and allegedly plotting "imminent" attacks on Israel.
Comment: Israel did not confine its attacks to Gaza, but also attacked the neighborhood of the Lebanese Embassy in Syria, where two people were killed and six wounded: Rockets were launched into Israel in response to Akram al-Ajouri.'s assassination: Bibi is attempting to hang on to relevance with murder: