Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an armed group based mostly in Gaza, was the goal of Israeli airstrikes early Tuesday, and was on the heart of a flare-up in violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip final summer season.
What is Islamic Jihad?
The second-largest Palestinian armed group in Gaza, Islamic Jihad has usually been eclipsed by the bigger Hamas motion, which has managed and ruled Gaza since 2007.
Islamic Jihad was based within the Eighties within the Gaza Strip to combat the Israeli occupation and maintains a presence in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Iran helps each teams with funding and weapons, and Israel and the United States record each as terrorist organizations.
Why is Israel focusing on Islamic Jihad?
The Israeli army stated on Tuesday that it had focused and killed three Islamic Jihad leaders that it stated had been answerable for rocket assaults in opposition to Israel and different assaults in opposition to Israeli residents within the occupied West Bank.
The three males killed had been: Khalil Bahitini, the commander of the group’s northern Gaza Strip area; Tareq Ezzedine, one other senior chief of the group, and Jihad Al-Ghanam, the secretary of the group’s army council.
Islamic Jihad known as the killings “an assassination” and stated that a few of the wives and youngsters of the lads had additionally been killed.
“We affirm that the blood of the martyrs will increase our resolve, and we will not leave our positions, and the resistance will continue,” it stated in a press release.
The group vowed to retaliate in opposition to Israel.
What is the connection between Islamic Jihad and Hamas?
Hamas and Islamic Jihad are sometimes united in opposition to their widespread enemy, Israel. They are a very powerful members of the joint operations room which coordinates most army exercise among the many numerous armed teams within the tiny coastal enclave of Gaza.
But at instances it’s a tense relationship, particularly when Hamas has exerted stress on Islamic Jihad to cease assaults or retaliation in opposition to Israel.
Islamic Jihad usually acts independently of Hamas and is concentrated totally on army confrontations. This has at instances drawn Hamas into battle. On different events, Hamas has stayed on the sidelines as Islamic Jihad has clashed with Israel.
What occurred final summer season?
Three days of fierce cross-border assaults between Israel and Islamic Jihad in Gaza in August resulted in an Egyptian-mediated cease-fire after essentially the most intense spherical of Israeli-Palestinian combating in additional than a 12 months.
The Israeli army started the hostilities when it assassinated a frontrunner of Islamic Jihad with missile strikes, saying it was performing to thwart an imminent assault. It hit targets within the Gaza Strip from the air, land and sea. Islamic Jihad responded with about 1,100 rockets and mortar shells towards Israeli territory, the army stated.
At least 44 Palestinians had been killed within the combating, 15 of them youngsters, and 360 folks had been injured, with 20 of them in severe situation, the Ministry of Health in Gaza stated on the time.
Source: www.nytimes.com