Israel resumed airstrikes against Iran-backed Islamic Jihad in the Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip on Friday after the terror group launched rockets against Israeli civilians, breaking a ceasefire that had been under way.
The Times of Israel reported:
The Israel Defense Forces says it is carrying out a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip against Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets.
The strikes come after Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of rockets toward the Jerusalem area and at towns in southern Israel.
Israel has said that it will not negotiate under fire, and intends to send a message to Hamas — which has stayed out of the fighting thus far — and other terror groups by eliminating Islamic Jihad’s leadership.
The Israeli military noted that many of the rockets fired from Gaza landed within Gaza, often killing or wounding Palestinian civilians — incidents that the Palestinians and others often try to blame on Israel.
⭕️Follow the rockets that misfired and killed civilians in Gaza.
This morning a barrage of rockets was fired by the Islamic Jihad, multiple rockets fell inside Gaza. pic.twitter.com/Of54wYoCPB
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2023
72 Hours of Operation “Shield and Arrow”: these are the numbers. pic.twitter.com/82aG9fcjJV
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 12, 2023
In emphasizing its strict adherence to international humanitarian law, the Israeli military also published footage of pilots abandoning attacks when there were Palestinian civilians seen too close to the targets.
Watch: The moment an IAF pilot cancels a strike against Islamic Jihad terrorists because of the presence of children near the target. pic.twitter.com/geCzHjxWEU
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2023
The conflict has been dubbed “Operation Shield and Arrow,” a play on the “Bow and Arrow” that are features of the recent Jewish holiday of Lag Ba’Omer. Israel has successfully deployed its medium-range missile defense system, David’s Sling, during the conflict, which began earlier this month. Islamic Jihad launched rockets at Israel after one of its leaders died in an Israeli prison while staging a hunger strike; Israel was slow to respond, given the dangers of a regional escalation, but is now determined to exact a price from the Iran-backed group.
There has been one death in Israel thus far after a rocket hit a home in the university town of Rehovot after the Iron Dome missile defense system failed to launch properly. Iranian-backed groups have been testing the limits of Israel’s defenses, hoping to overwhelm its sophisticated systems by firing a massive number of rockets.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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