Israeli airstrikes hit Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza on Wednesday as militants continued to retaliate with rockets — bringing the total number to about 360 — during a two-day escalation of violence since the targeted killing of a top commander of the Iran-backed terror group, the Israeli military said.
The Israel Defense Forces’ Iron Dome missile defense system has been deployed against the rockets, with a success rate of over 90 percent, a military spokesman told The Post.
At least 23 Palestinians have been killed, including a 7-year-old boy and two other minors, since Tuesday in the heaviest round of fighting in months. Nearly all of those killed were members of Islamic Jihad, officials said.
The hostilities erupted after Israel targeted the group’s top commander, Baha Abu Al-Atta, who was killed along with his wife inside their home in the Gaza Strip.
According to Israel, Abu Al-Atta was responsible for rocket fire at Israel as well as other attacks and was planning more violence, with the military calling him a “ticking bomb.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was prepared to keep pounding the militants in Gaza as long as rocket fire continues. Two Israelis have been wounded by shrapnel from the rocket fire.
“Either stop these attacks or absorb more and more blows,” he said Wednesday at the start of a special cabinet meeting, emphasizing that Israel would act “without mercy.”
“The terrorists know we can put a target on them and we will put a target on anyone who tries to harm us. They know we can get to them in their hiding places with surgical precision,” Netanyahu said in a statement, according to the Times of Israel.
Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who took office Tuesday, said Israel was sending a clear message to its enemies.
“Whoever plans to harm us during the day, will never be safe to make it through the night,” he said.
The latest fighting brought life in much of southern Israel to a standstill. Schools were closed in communities near the Gaza border, restrictions on public gatherings continued as rockets rained down and air raid sirens continued to wail.
In Gaza, schools and public institutions also were shuttered for a second day and there were few vehicles on the road, with people mostly hunkering down indoors.
The bodies of six people were brought to a Gaza hospital in taxis and ambulances Wednesday, as relatives wept and screamed. Medics and witnesses said they were civilians who lived in densely populated neighborhoods of the enclave.
In the north of Gaza City, family members said Rafat Ayyad and two of his sons, Islam, 25, and Ameer, 9, were killed by Israeli fire while rushing to the hospital to visit another son who had earlier been injured in another attack.
“I got wounded and I called my father. He was coming to see me in hospital and two of my brothers were with him on the motorcycle when they were hit by Israel,” Loay Ayyad, 18, told Reuters during the funeral.
The Israel Defense Forces said it had struck at least five rocket squads early Wednesday.
Other targets included a rocket warhead manufacturing facility, an Islamic Jihad headquarters and a weapons storage site. Islamic Jihad confirmed that two of its militants were killed in separate strikes.
In a joint statement, the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s military wing, and three other armed groups in Gaza took credit for firing dozens of rockets at Sderot and Ashkelon.
“We announce that we are responsible for this heroic mission,” the joint statement reads, according to the Times of Israel.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Musab al-Barayem said the group was not interested in mediation for now as it responded to the killing of one of its commanders.
A statement by the Joint Command of Palestinian armed factions said: “We will not allow the enemy to return to the policy of cowardly assassination under any circumstances.”
The Joint Command includes Hamas, the much larger Islamist group that controls Gaza.
While Hamas appeared to be giving the green light for Islamic Jihad to continue, the larger group did not appear to be launching rockets itself.
Hamas and Israel have managed to defuse prior confrontations and avoid a full-scale conflict for the past five years, following three wars from 2008 to 2014.
In the past, Israel has held Hamas responsible for rockets fired by any group in Gaza, but this time the IDF appeared to be avoiding Hamas targets.
Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an IDF spokesman, said the army was trying to limit its activities to Islamic Jihad military targets in hopes of keeping Hamas on the sidelines and preventing a serious escalation.
“However, it’s very clear that if there will be Israeli casualties, the situation would change drastically and we would be forced to respond in a different manner,” he said.
UN Middle East peace envoy Nickolay Mladenov said he was “very concerned about the ongoing and serious escalation” between the Islamic Jihad and Israel.
“The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars against population centers is absolutely unacceptable and must stop immediately,” he said, according to Reuters.
With Post wires
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