Khaled Mansour was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the Palestinian town of Rafah, officials said. The terrorist group confirmed his death in a statement on Sunday morning. He was the southern Gaza counterpart of Tayseer Jabari, the terrorist group’s commander in northern Gaza, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday. Jabari’s killing was the opening blow of the IDF’s Operation Breaking Dawn. Since then, the PIJ has fired more than 580 rockets into Israel, according to IDF estimates. The IDF released a video on Sunday morning of the airstrike that killed Mansour, along with the terror group’s Rafah Brigade commander, Hattab Amasi, and Mansour’s deputy, Ziad Madalal. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms The head of the army’s Operations Directorate, Major General Oded Basiuk, said that according to “all available information”, Israel had now killed the entire top PIJ. Last week, the IDF arrested the leader of the terrorist group in the West Bank. “This organization attempted to carry out a deadly attack against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers by firing an anti-tank guided missile, with the aim of killing civilians and soldiers,” Basiuk told a news conference outside IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. “We struck and removed the chain of command [who sought to] carry out this attack,” he said, referring to the killings of Jabari and Mansour. Basiuk said that “according to all the information we have, [Mansour] it was [struck] with others”. Major General Oded Basiuk issues a statement outside the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, August 6, 2022. (Photo: Channel 12 news) “The entire top team of the PIJ military wing in Gaza was [struck]” said Basiuk. Mansour was also responsible for several rocket attacks on Israel, according to military officials. Credit: Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at Israel in Gaza City, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair) The Israeli air force has carried out numerous strikes in Gaza targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad as part of the operation launched on Friday to counter what Israeli leaders said was an immediate concrete threat from the PIJ to Israeli communities. The operation was launched after several days of closures and lockdowns in Israeli communities near the Strip amid fears of an imminent attack, with the PIJ seeking to avenge the arrest of its leader in the West Bank earlier in the week. Israeli leaders said the operation was launched because the PIJ had refused to back down from its plans to attack Israeli targets on the border. Gaza’s health ministry said on Saturday that the death toll from the latest violence in the area had risen to 24, including six children, but Israel denied carrying out a new strike that reportedly killed seven of them, including children. . Meanwhile, the IDF has begun calling up reservists to reinforce the Southern Command, the Home Front Command, the air defense arrangement and combat troops in the event of further escalation. Defense Minister Benny Gantz has authorized the call-up of up to 25,000 reserve troops, his office said. It’s not (only) for you. Supporting The Times of Israel is not a transaction for an online service, such as subscribing to Netflix. The ToI community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions around the world, for free. Of course, we’ll remove all ads from your page and you’ll get access to some awesome Community-only content. But your support gives you something deeper than that: the pride of participating in something that really matters. Join the Times of Israel Community Join our Community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this You are a devoted reader We are really glad that you read X Times of Israel articles last month. That’s why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago – to provide discerning readers like you with the must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world. So now we have a request. Unlike other media, we have not set up a paywall. But because the journalism we do is expensive, we invite readers to whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community. For just $6 a month you can support our quality journalism by enjoying Times of Israel ADS-FREE, as well as access to exclusive content available only to members of the Times of Israel Community. Thank you, David Horovitz, founding editor of the Times of Israel Join our community Join our community Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this