The fighting began when Israel killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in a strike on Friday. Gaza’s Hamas leaders have so far appeared to remain on the sidelines of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat subdued for now. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the past 15 years at a staggering cost to the region’s 2 million Palestinians. Shortly before noon on Saturday, Israeli warplanes stepped up airstrikes. After warning residents in phone calls, warplanes dropped two bombs on the home of an Islamic Jihad member in a residential area of Gaza City, flattening the two-story structure and causing extensive damage to surrounding homes. Women and children ran out of the area and there were no casualties. “Did he warn us? They warned us with rockets and we left without taking anything,” said Huda Shamalakh, who lived next door. He said 15 people lived in the targeted home. Another airstrike hit an Islamic Jihad site nearby. Gaza militants continued to fire rockets into southern Israel about every half hour, although there were no reports of casualties. Gaza’s only power plant shut down at noon on Saturday due to a lack of fuel, as Israel has closed crossing points into Gaza since Tuesday. The outage deepens the densely populated region’s chronic power crisis amid peak summer heat. With the new outage, Gazans can only have 4 hours of electricity per day, increasing their reliance on private generators. The latest round of Israel-Gaza violence was sparked by the arrest this week of a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank, part of a month-long Israeli military operation in the region. Citing a security threat, Israel then sealed off roads around the Gaza Strip and on Friday killed Islamic Jihad’s commander for northern Gaza, Taiseer al-Jabari, in a targeted strike. An Israeli military spokesman said the strikes were in response to an “immediate threat” from two groups of militants armed with anti-tank missiles. “This government has a policy of zero tolerance for any attempted attacks – of any kind – from Gaza into Israeli territory,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a televised address on Friday. “Israel will not sit idly by when there are those who seek to harm its civilians.” “Israel is not interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but it will not avoid one.” he added. The violence is an early test for Lapid, who has taken on the role of caretaker prime minister ahead of November elections, when he hopes to retain the post. Lapid, a centrist former TV host and author, has experience in diplomacy having served as foreign minister in the outgoing government, but has thin security credentials. A clash with Gaza could brighten his position and give him a boost as he faces former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a security hawk who led the country through three of its four wars with Hamas. Hamas also faces a dilemma in deciding whether to engage in a new battle just a year after the last war caused widespread destruction. Since then there has been almost no rebuilding and the isolated coastal region is mired in poverty, with unemployment hovering around 50%. Egypt has been stepping up efforts to prevent an escalation, contacting Israel, the Palestinians and the US to prevent Hamas from joining the fighting, an Egyptian intelligence official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 5-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman were among the 12 killed in Gaza, along with more than 80 wounded. He did not distinguish between civilians and combatants. The Israeli military said initial estimates were that about 15 fighters were killed. Hundreds marched in a funeral procession for Jihad commander al-Jabari and others killed, with many mourners waving Palestinian and Islamic Jihad flags and calling for revenge. Al-Jabari had succeeded another fighter who was killed in an airstrike in 2019, which at the time also started a round of heavy fighting. Overnight, Israeli media showed the skies over southern and central Israel lit up with rockets and interceptors from Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. There were no immediate reports of casualties on the Israeli side. Israel said its strikes in Gaza hit rocket launchers, rocket manufacturing facilities and Islamic Jihad positions. It also arrested 19 Islamic Jihad fighters in the West Bank, the military said. The UN’s special envoy for the region, Tor Wennesland, said: “Rocket firing must stop immediately and I call on all sides to avoid further escalation.” Defense Minister Benny Gantz authorized an order to call up 25,000 reservists if needed, while the military announced a “special situation” on the home front, with schools closed and restrictions on activities in communities within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of the border. Israel closed roads around Gaza earlier this week and sent reinforcements to the border as it prepared for a retaliatory attack following the capture on Monday of Islamic Jihad leader Bassam al-Saadi in a military raid in the occupied West Bank. A teenage member of the group was killed in a clash between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants. Hamas seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew from the coastal strip. The most recent war with Israel was in May 2021. Tensions flared again earlier this year after a wave of attacks inside Israel, near-daily military operations in the West Bank and tensions at a holy site in Jerusalem. The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad is smaller than Hamas but largely shares its ideology. Both groups oppose Israel’s existence and have carried out dozens of deadly attacks over the years, including firing rockets into Israel. It is unclear how much control Hamas has over Islamic Jihad, and Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza. Israel and Egypt have maintained a strict blockade on the region since the Hamas takeover. Israel says the shutdown is necessary to prevent Hamas from developing its military capabilities. Critics say the policy amounts to collective punishment.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
