IDF says it killed top Islamic Jihad commander and continues to destroy Hamas tunnels

The Israeli army launched heavy airstrikes over the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, in which he said he had destroyed 15 kilometers tunnels militiamen and houses of nine suspected Hamas commanders.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported that in Islamic Jihad group commander Hussam Abu Harbeed killed in the northern division of the Gaza Strip. According to the military, he led the attacks on Israel for more than 15 years. The Palestinian militia has yet to confirm Abu Harbeed’s release.

The army claimed to have attacked nine houses in different parts of northern Gaza, which belonged to “high ranking commanders” of Hamas, the Islamist group that has controlled the territory since it took control from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

The IDF said it was a joint operation between the air force and the army’s cyber defense unit. “The houses that were attacked were used as terrorist infrastructure and in some houses they even found weapons depots,” the IDF said via his Twitter, where they clarified that one of them was the one of the battalion commander Beit Hanun. that of the company commander Beit Hanoun, that of the company commander of Gaza City and that of the company commander of the Al-Shati brigade.

A house in Shejaiya used by Hamas military intelligence, as well as a house in Shejaiya, was also hit by the Israeli attack. a tunnel dug by Hamas located near a kindergarten and a mosque, as detailed by the army, which denounced to what extent this construction “demonstrates once again how the terrorist organization Hamas deliberately places its military resources at the heart of the civilian population”.

As he insisted, the Israeli forces “are taking as many precautionary measures as possible to reduce possible harm to civilians during their military activities.”

In the last days, Israel attacked the homes of various Hamas leaders, such as Yehiyeh Sinwar, its main boss in Gaza.. The group’s leaders are isolated in an unknown location when the fighting begins, and their leaders were unlikely to be at home at the time of the attacks.

Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group claim that at least 20 of their fighters were killed, although Israel claims the figure is much higher and has released the names and photos of more than two dozen militia commanders it claims to have “eliminated”.

The army claimed to have reached 35 “terrorist targets” in addition to the tunnels, which he describes as part of a complex system called the “metro” used by fighters to escape planes. 54 planes participated in the operation.

According to army figures updated on Monday, Israel has hit 820 targets in strikes in Gaza since escalation began, which he said belonged to the Palestinian militias of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised speech on Sunday that the attacks would continue “at full force” and “take some time.” Israel, he said, “wants to charge a high price” to Hamas.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who resides abroad, said the group was in contact with the United States, Russia, Egypt and Qatar as part of the ceasefire efforts, but that he “will not accept a solution that does not live up to the sacrifices of the Palestinian people.” In an interview with the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, accused Israeli actions in Jerusalem of causing war and claimed that the rockets “cripple the usurping entity (Israel) by imposing a curfew on its citizens and closing its ports and airports.”

Egyptian President Abdul Fata el Sisi said his government was working to end the violence “urgently” in his first remarks since the start of the war. Egypt, which borders Gaza and Israel, played a key role in the ceasefire agreements negotiated after other rounds of fighting.

The attacks caused extensive damage to roads and other infrastructure, Gaza mayor Yahya Sarraj told Al-Jazeera television. “If the aggression continues, we expect conditions to worsen,” he said. He also warned that the territory is short of fuel and spare parts. The United Nations has warned that Gaza’s only power plant is at risk of running out of fuel. The territory is already experiencing daily cuts of 8 to 12 hours and tap water is not drinkable.

Mohammed Thabet, a spokesperson for the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company, said he had fuel to serve Gaza for another two or three days. The airstrikes have affected supply routes and company personnel are unable to reach areas affected by continued Israeli strikes, he added.

The war began last Monday when Hamas sent long-range rockets into Jerusalem after weeks of clashes in Old Jerusalem between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police. The protests focused on aggressive police interventions at a contested place of worship during the holy month of Ramadan and the threat of eviction of dozens of Palestinian families at the behest of Jewish settlers.

Since then, the IDF has made hundreds of airstrikes, directed against the military infrastructure of Hamas. Palestinian Hamas militiamen fired more than 3,100 rockets at Israel.

At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in hundreds of airstrikes on Gaza, including 55 children and 33 women, and 1,230 people have been injured. Eight people were killed in Israel by rocket attacks from Gaza, including a five-year-old boy and a soldier.

“I have not seen this level of destruction in my 14 years of work,” said Samir al-Khatib, an official with the relief services in Gaza. “Not even during the 2014 war,” he added, referring to the most destructive of the four wars that Israel and Hamas have fought.

Israeli airstrikes brought down several of Gaza City’s tallest buildings, which Israel said contained Hamas’s military infrastructure. Among them was the building that housed the Associated Press offices and other outlets.

PA executive director Sally Buzbee called for an independent investigation into the attack that destroyed the PA office on Saturday. The Israeli army alerted the workers and residents of the building and they were all able to evacuate the building safely before the attack. Netanyahu claims that Hamas intelligence was operating in the building, and on Sunday he said he would share any information on the matter through intelligence channels. Neither the White House nor the State Department said whether they had received any information.

(With information from AP, EFE and Europa Press)

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