Image copyright (AFP) AFP An Israeli air strike has killed a senior commander of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad in
Baha Abu al-Ata died along with his wife when a missile hit their home, the group said. Four of their children and a neighbor were reportedly injured.
Israel’s prime minister said Abu al-Ata was a “ticking bomb” who was planning to carry out attacks on the country.
At least 70 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since the killing, which PIJ has vowed to avenge.
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Seventeen Israelis have been lightly wounded in rocket attacks across the south , according to the Barzilai Medical Center in the city of Ashkelon.
Medics said an eight-year-old girl was also in a serious condition after collapsing as her family rushed towards a bomb shelter when an air raid siren sounded in Holon, south of Tel Aviv.
Around the same time as the attack on Abu al- Ata, two people were killed and 10 injured in an Israeli air strike on the home of another Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Syria’s state news agency Sana said.
Israel did not comment on the report and it was not clear if the PIJ leader, Akram al-Ajouri, was among the dead. Sana *** said his son Moaz was killed.
PIJ, which is backed by Iran, has its headquarters in Damascus and is one of the strongest militant groups in Gaza.
What happened in Gaza?
An Israeli warplane fired a missile at a residential building in the eastern Shejaiya area of Gaza before dawn on Tuesday, causing an explosion that could be heard from kilometers away. The missile hit the third floor, killing Abu al-Ata and his wife.
A PIJ statement confirming Abu al-Ata’s death said he was its commander in Gaza’s northern region and that he was undertaking “a heroic jihadist action “.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Abu al-Ata was “responsible for most of the terror attacks in the last year from the Gaza Strip “, including the launching of rockets towards the southern Israeli city of Sderot in August and earlier this month.
“This arch-terrorist was the main perpetrator of terrorism in the strip,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a news conference in Tel Aviv. “He was in the process of planning more attacks … He was a ticking bomb.”
He warned there could be a protracted period of tensions with militants in Gaza.
“Israel is not interested in escalation but will do whatever it takes to protect ourselves, “he said.
Baha Abu al-Ata came to prominence in Gaza this year, commanding fighters of Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigade in the north and east of the strip.
But he acted increasingly outside of the control of the dominant militant faction Hamas, ordering rocket attacks seemingly without approval after Israeli soldiers shot and injured dozens of Palestinians during regular protests at the perimeter fence earlier this month.
A Palestinian TV presenter even warned on-air recently that his actions might see the children trying to kill him.
A serious escalation in hostilities is now likely, despite Israel’s efforts to signal to Hamas that it has not returned to a wider strategy of so-called targeted killings.
How have Palestinian militants responded?
At Abu al-Atta’s funeral, senior PIJ official Khaled al-Batsh said Israel had “executed two coordinated attacks – in Syria and in Gaza – in a declaration of war”.
PIJ vowed that its retaliation would “rock the Zionist entity”.
The militant group Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip and is considered a rival to PIJ , said Israel bore “full responsibility for the consequences of this escalation”. It warned that the killing of Abu al-Ata would “not pass without punishment”.
Following the air strike, rockets were fired from Gaza towards Israeli territory. Some were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, the IDF said.
Air raid sirens sounded across parts of southern and central Israel, including Holon and Modiin, which are more than 50 km (30 miles) from the border with Gaza.
Israeli media reported that a factory in Sderot and a house in Netivot were hit.
After several hours, the IDF said it had begun retaliatory strikes in Gaza.
Israeli aircraft targeted two militants from PIJ’s rocket-launching unit, which the IDF said “posed an immediate threat”. Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said one Palestinian was killed and several were injured in a strike in northern Gaza.
The IDF said a second PIJ rocket-launching unit was bombed later on Tuesday, but there was no immediate report of any casualties.
The European Union called for an immediate end to the firing of rockets on civilian populations which it said was totally unacceptable, and said it supported Egyptian efforts to broker “a rapid and complete de-escalation”.
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