The Israel Defense Forces blames the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad for the recent increase in violence from the Gaza Strip and calls on Hamas, the de facto ruler of the enclave, to rein in the terror group.
“We do not plan to accept terror attacks and rocket fire against our citizens,” the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson Avichay Adraee writes on Twitter.
Adraee is referring to a number of rocket and mortar attacks directed against southern Israel and infiltration attempts along the border in recent days.
Fighters from the Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad terror group’s military wing, take part in a military march in the town of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 15, 2018. (Abed Rahim Khatib/ Flash90)
The Islamic Jihad is the second most powerful terror group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas. Israel has routinely accused the Iran-backed group of seeking to derail its unofficial ceasefire agreements with Hamas by carrying out attacks from Gaza.
“Hamas, as the ruler of the Strip, must enforce its authority over Islamic Jihad and prevent these terror attacks and plots,” Adraee says.
The spokesman says Islamic Jihad is responsible for any failure to implement the conditions of the ceasefire agreements and that it will “bear the consequences” for these activities.
— Judah Ari Gross
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