Israeli warplanes struck several locations in the blockaded area on Friday in a surprise operation called “Breaking Dawn” that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said thwarted suspected planned rocket attacks by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While sometimes acting independently, Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the strip. As the firefight continued and Israel appeared to widen the operation on Saturday morning, health authorities in the Palestinian coastal enclave said 12 people were killed by Israeli airstrikes, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Tayseer Jabari, and civilians including a five-year-old old lady and 22 year old art student. About 80 more people were injured. Islamic Jihad called the initial Israeli bombardment a “declaration of war”, firing a barrage of at least 100 rockets into southern Israel on Friday night. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, with many missiles intercepted by the Iron Dome air defense system, but 13 people were taken to hospital with minor injuries. The hostilities have left people in Gaza fearing another round of war, which would be the fourth major conflict in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007. Israel and Egypt closed the strip’s borders a year later , leaving the region’s 2 million residents struggling with unemployment, crumbling medical infrastructure and little electricity and clean water. Hamas announced its support for Islamic Jihad and said it would also respond to the strikes. “The resistance, with all its weapons and military factions, is united in this campaign and will have the last word,” the organization said in a statement. Egypt, historically a mediator between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, said it had been informed by Israel that Breaking Dawn would be a smaller-scale attack, but that negotiations had not yet begun. The violence this weekend comes after days of tension sparked by the arrest of Bassem al-Saadi, the top commander of Islamic Jihad in the occupied West Bank. The IDF has carried out almost nightly raids in the West Bank since mid-March in response to a wave of Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians. While Islamic Jihad did not fire rockets after Saadi’s capture, Israel insisted throughout the week that the group was seeking revenge, closing the Erez crossing that Palestinians use in Gaza to enter Israel and blocking roads and restricting civilian movement in south of israel. a precaution. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am Israeli tanks and armor were lined up along the border on Friday after the army announced on Thursday that it was reinforcing its troops. “Israel is not interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but it will not avoid one either,” Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said in a televised address on Friday. The Gaza Strip has remained relatively quiet since last May’s war, which killed 256 people in Gaza and 14 in Israel. Israel elected a coalition government a month later, which for the first time included members of an independent Arab-Israeli party, as opposed to escalating with the Palestinians. It also increased the number of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel in an effort to alleviate the strip’s crushing poverty. The short-lived coalition collapsed in June. Lapid, the caretaker prime minister, is preparing for elections on November 1, in which he faces pressure from Israel’s right wing to appear tough on terrorism.
