At least 19 rockets fired at Israel from southern Gaza, the largest barrage in weeks
Salvoes set off sirens in communities near border and around Kiryat Malachi, some 65 km from Strip; IDF confirms killing deputy head of Islamic Jihad arms manufacturing unit
Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip launched several volleys of projectiles at southern Israel on Friday, marking some of the most intensive rocket fire from the coastal enclave in weeks.
At least 19 rockets were launched from southern Gaza over a few-hour span.
One of the rockets triggered warning sirens around the city of Kiryat Malachi, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the Strip’s south. It impacted an open area near the town of Arugot.
The other 18 rockets were launched toward a number of communities along the border.
Hamas took responsibility for some of the launches, toward the border community of Sufa.
There were no reports of injuries and all the rockets either landed in open areas or were downed by the Iron Dome missile defense system, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
The IDF later said it carried out drone strokes on the rocket launchers used in the attacks, destroying them.
Meanwhile, the army confirmed Friday that it had killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza, as fighting raged in the Strip’s south and center, while an Arabic-language report said the IDF recently killed five Hamas leaders in a tunnel under Gaza City.
“We are ready to go far, we know how to make great efforts to bring very accurate intelligence, to attack, kill and also take risks,” said Israel Defense Force Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi in an overnight visit with troops in Gaza.
“We attacked in Beirut and we are attacking in Gaza, and we will be very strong in defense, and then we will also attack very strongly,” he added.
An Israeli airstrike in Beirut on Tuesday killed Hezbollah deputy leader Fuad Shukr. Hours later, Hamas political chief was killed by an explosion in Tehran, which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied taking part in. And on Wednesday, the IDF confirmed the death of Hamas military chief Muhammad Dief in a July 13 airstrike on southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
Mediators in talks with Hamas have expressed dismay at Haniyeh’s killing, saying it could throw a wrench in progress toward a ceasefire-for-hostages deal. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has authorized Israeli negotiators to resume talks in Cairo in the coming days.
The IDF also said Friday that troops with the 162nd Division killed more than 30 gunmen in close-quarters combat and by calling in airstrikes in southern Gaza’s Rafah in the past day.
In the Netzarim Corridor in the central Gaza Strip, where the 252nd Division is deployed, reservists with the division’s Jerusalem Brigade spotted a cell of gunmen emerging from a tunnel, and called in a drone strike, according to the military.
In the same area, amid operations by the Harel Reserve Armored Brigade, an attack helicopter struck a building used as a weapons depot, the IDF added.
An Israeli airstrike killed Muhammad al-Jabari, the deputy head of a weapons manufacturing unit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad responsible for the unit’s finances, the IDF said Friday. Palestinian media reports said al-Jabari was killed in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood.
According to the army, al-Jabari “was entrusted with the organization’s production of weapons in the northern Gaza Strip, distribution of salaries and money to the organization’s terrorists, and took an active part in the attempt to restore the organization’s rocket production capabilities and infrastructure.”
The military carried out “many steps” to mitigate harm to civilians in the strike, including using aerial surveillance and precision munitions, the IDF said.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported Friday that the IDF killed two Hamas politburo members and three military commanders in a recent airstrike on a tunnel under Gaza City.
The report, which cited Hamas sources, named those killed as political leaders Rawhi Mushtaha and Sameh al-Siraj along with three commanders from the group’s military wing, the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades; Abdul Hadi Siam, Sami Odeh and Muhammad Hadid.
Mushtaha has served as de facto prime minister of the Gaza Strip and is in charge of financial affairs within the Hamas politburo. He reportedly helped establish the Hamas military wing and was arrested by Israel in 1988 before being released in 2011 as part of the Shalit prisoner swap.
He is said to be a close confidant of Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar and is seen as one of the terror group’s most hawkish members.
Siraj has served in the Hamas politburo since 2021 and is also in charge of internal security within the Strip. He reportedly headed a secret intelligence unit operating out of Turkey.
The Hamas sources said the bodies of the assassinated leaders were pulled from the rubble after the most recent bombing in a complicated extraction effort that took several days. They were reportedly buried Thursday night.
According to the report, the tunnel was used by the terror group as a command and control center and has rooms for sleeping, where operatives can hide out for extended periods.
The IDF said in November that it had targeted Mushtaha and Siraj in a tunnel, but was unable to confirm their deaths.
صحيفة التايمز:
حماس تدير من غزة مجموعة سرية فى اسطنبول للحرب الإلكترونية والاستخبارات المضادة وللشراء ﺍﻟﻤﻮﺍﺩ ﺫﺍﺕ ﺍﻻﺳﺘﺨﺪﺍﻡ ﺍﻟﻤﺰﺩﻭﺝ.
سامح السراج أبو فكري عضو المكتب السياسي لحماس في القطاع يدير المجموعة من غزة ويرفع تقاريره مباشرا الى يحيى السنوار pic.twitter.com/TOWanGEYsI— Gal Berger גל ברגר (@galberger) October 23, 2020
The sources quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat said the strike on the tunnel that killed the Hamas members took place around a week and a half ago, noting the underground hideout was partially damaged in an airstrike at the beginning of the ongoing war in Gaza, sparked by the terror group’s October 7 massacre.
The onslaught saw thousands of terrorists storm southern Israel to kill nearly 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 331.
