AMIR COHEN/Portal
Fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad continued on Saturday morning in the Gaza Strip.
MIDDLE EAST – The Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Israel continues this Saturday, August 6, their gun battles began the previous day with the worst outbreak of violence between the two enemies in a year.
Earlier in the day, as rocket warnings continued to sound in Israeli towns adjacent to the Palestinian blockade, AFP journalists noted that the city of Gaza, under fire since Friday, was paralyzed; Streets are deserted and shops closed in this enclave under blockade by 2.3 million residents who are being eroded by poverty and unemployment.
The Israeli army continued its attacks throughout the enclave until dawn, targeting Islamic Jihad sites; It is said that it hit a weapons factory in particular and caused about fifteen deaths among the combatants. Gaza Strip authorities reported 10 dead, including a five-year-old girl, and 79 injured.
Twenty arrests in the West Bank
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, said Friday after a volley of more than 100 rockets into Israeli soil that it was only a “first-line response” to the killing of one of its leaders in an Israeli attack. Also overnight in the West Bank, an area occupied by the Jewish state since 1967, Israeli forces arrested 19 members of Islamic Jihad, an Islamist organization considered terrorist by Israel, the United States and the European Union.
It was the arrest earlier this week of a leader of the group in the occupied West Bank that led to this new armed confrontation. The Israeli authorities said they feared retaliation from Gaza, a micro-territory ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas and where Islamic Jihad is well established, and launched a “pre-emptive attack”.
This is the worst confrontation between the Jewish state and armed organizations in Gaza since the 11-day war in May 2021, which local authorities said left 260 dead on the Palestinian side, including combatants, and 14 dead on the Israeli side, including a soldier.
Egypt, a historic mediator between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, is working to mediate and could host an Islamic Jihad delegation this Saturday, Egyptian officials told AFP in Gaza. Egyptian diplomacy had previously indicated it was “in tireless talks to calm the situation and preserve lives and property.”
Pre-emptive strikes, according to Israel
After the initial raids, Islamic Jihad accused the Jewish state of “starting a war.” “The Zionist enemy has started this aggression and must expect us to fight relentlessly,” his secretary-general Ziad al-Nakhala said in an interview with Lebanese television Al-Mayadeen in the Iranian capital, Tehran.
“Israel has conducted a precise anti-terrorist operation against an imminent threat,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said on television on Friday, accusing the armed group of “being a proxy for Iran that wants to destroy the State of Israel and kill innocent people.” Israelis”. “We will do everything to defend our people,” he said.
In 2019, the death of an Islamic Jihad commander in an Israeli operation sparked several days of deadly gunfire between the armed group and Israel. Hamas, which has fought four wars against the Jewish state since taking power in 2007, has stayed away from the clashes.
See also on The HuffPost: In Jerusalem, Al Jazeera journalist’s funeral turns into argument
You cannot view this content because you have rejected the cookies associated with third-party content. If you want to view this content, you can change your choices.