Israel’s bombardment has claimed 10 lives, among them a five-year-old girl and a senior militant.
In the biggest escalation of hostilities to hit the region since a conflict last year, Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes, and a terrorist organization there reacted with a barrage of rockets on Saturday.
Health officials in the Hamas-controlled region reported that the Israeli shelling had resulted in 10 deaths, including a five-year-old kid, and 79 injuries. 15 militants allegedly died as a result of the Israeli army’s raid.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid claimed that following days of turmoil near the Gaza border, the Jewish nation was obligated to carry out a “pre-emptive counter-terror measure against an immediate threat” posed by the Islamic Jihad group.
Israel and Islamic Jihad both say that Taysir al-Jabari, a senior member of the terrorist group, was murdered in an attack on a building in the western part of Gaza on Friday.
The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, the Al-Quds Brigades, declared that it had launched many rockets and mortar rounds toward the Israeli communities and military installations.
The Al-Quds Brigades asserted on their Telegram channel that they fired 60 missiles in retaliation for Israel’s attack on Gaza, hitting Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport, Ashdod, Beersheba, Ashkelon, Netivot, and Sderot.
The operation was known as “Fields of Unity” by the group.
The most recent outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Gaza in less than a year is the most serious one to date. During an 11-day struggle in May 2021 that did not end in a truce, more than 200 Palestinians and 12 Israelis perished.
The Israeli military has warned that this most recent operation, code-named Breaking Dawn, might last for a week.
After conducting airstrikes against sites in the Gaza Strip, Israel claimed to have captured 19 members of the Palestinian organization Islamic Jihad in operations throughout the occupied West Bank.
At the same time as recent news of airstrikes Israel says are targeted at PIJ militants in Gaza, sirens warning of oncoming missiles were audible in Israeli neighborhoods on Saturday.
Although it frequently coordinates its activities with Islamic Jihad and has a similar philosophy, the largest militant group in the area, Hamas, does not appear to be firing missiles from its considerable rocket stockpile anytime soon.
Israel has not been reported to have carried out airstrikes against Hamas as a result.
Why is Israel attacking Gaza?
After Britain won the First World War and overthrew the Ottoman Empire’s monarch, it assumed control. The responsibility of creating a “national empire” for Jews in this location fell to the British.
Jews made up the minority population, and Arabs made up the majority. This was the country of the Jews’ ancestors, but the Arabs also claimed it. Jews began migrating in large numbers, especially during the Holocaust and the Second World War, to avoid being put to death.
In order to implement the United Nations’ decision to split Palestine into Jewish and Arab governments, Jerusalem was designated as a world city in 1947. However, Arab’s resistance to this proposal contributed to its failure.
Jews proclaimed the territory of Israel when the British left, which the Palestinians rejected, sparking a conflict.
After the fighting ceased, Israel maintained control over the majority of the battlefield. Israeli soldiers occupied the west of Jerusalem, while Jordanian forces occupied the east.
In 1967, there was yet another war. In this, Israel conquered the majority of the Syrian Golan Heights, Gaza, and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula in addition to East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Israel has prohibited both the Palestine refugees and their descendants, residing in Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, and Syria from going back to their original homes.
The capital of a future Palestinian state would be in East Jerusalem, according to the Palestinians, whereas Israel claims the entire city of Jerusalem as its capital.
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have long argued that Israeli policies and limitations are to blame for their misery. Israel claims that it is merely taking action to defend itself from aggression from the Palestinians.
