By Saturday night, Israeli officials said more than 350 rockets had been fired from the Palestinian enclave. And for the first time in the current conflict, rocket sirens sounded in the central metropolis of Tel Aviv. Two incoming missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system and two more fell into the sea. The vast majority of rockets did not endanger Israeli communities, but a few towns were hit, causing damage but no casualties. One hit a road in Ashkelon destroying nearby cars. A second hit a house in Sderot as the family hid in a reinforced room. A third hit the premises of a Sderot factory. and a fourth hit a factory in an undisclosed town near the border. Israel’s high-level security cabinet met Saturday night to review the status of Operation Breaking Dawn and consider the military’s next actions. As Israeli airstrikes continued on PIJ sites in the Strip, the head of Gaza’s military told Channel 12 News that there were still “many” more targets to hit. Get The Times of Israel Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories By signing up, you agree to the terms The military launched the operation with airstrikes in Gaza on Friday afternoon in response to an ongoing “specific” threat by the PIJ to target Israeli civilians and soldiers. Islamic Jihad then began launching a relentless barrage of rockets at Israeli communities in southern and central Israel, with rocket fire continuing into Saturday night. Intercept video over southern Israel. pic.twitter.com/Zvdq9iK3qg — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 6, 2022 The latest figures from the Israel Defense Forces put the number of rockets fired at Israel at 350. Of these, 94 landed in the Gaza Strip and another 29 landed in the Mediterranean Sea. A rocket landed outside a factory in Sderot. No injuries. pic.twitter.com/yVrFR443fR — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 6, 2022 The Iron Dome air defense system intercepted 162 missiles, according to the data. The military said the Iron Dome showed a 95.9 percent success rate in intercepting missiles fired at residential areas. The system is programmed to ignore missiles that are not considered a threat. A rocket in the southern city of Ashkelon after a barrage was fired at Israel by a Gaza terrorist group, August 6, 2022. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) Three people, including two soldiers, were also slightly wounded in a separate mortar shelling near a town in Eshkol Regional Council. The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it had evacuated 21 people to hospitals since the fighting began, including two people slightly injured by rocket shrapnel, 13 after falling while running to the shelter and six for stress. Footage shows previous rocket impact in Ashkelon pic.twitter.com/FhPKxQpVpC — Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) August 6, 2022 Military chief Aviv Kohavi said Israel would target the PIJ in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and elsewhere. During a visit to the Southern Command, Kohavi said the IDF had two main objectives. “One is to prevent all attacks and the second is to critically strike the Islamic Jihad organization, here in Judea and Samaria, and in all other areas,” he said. People carry the body of Palestinian Hassan Mansour, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip on August 6, 2022. (Anas Baba/AFP) “We will not allow any organization in any arena to harm the sovereignty of the state of Israel,” he said. Defense Minister Benny Gantz issued a similar threat to PIJ leaders, who operate mostly from other countries hostile to Israel. “The leadership of Islamic Jihad, sitting abroad in restaurants and staying in hotels in Tehran, Syria and Lebanon, is cut off from its people,” he said during a tour of an Iron Dome air defense battery in southern Israel. He said they were “severely harming” the livelihoods of Gazans amid the current escalation of violence and that they would also “pay the bill”. Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said it was prepared for a possible week of fighting against the PIJ and later announced it had struck numerous observation posts and weapons caches belonging to the terror group across the Gaza Strip. Hamas’ health ministry said at least 15 people were killed in Israeli strikes, including a five-year-old girl, and 125 others were wounded. Smoke from an Israeli airstrike in Khan Ynunis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 6, 2022. (AFP) In the first round of Israeli raids, the military killed one of PIJ’s senior commanders, Tayseer Jabari, who officials said was planning to attack Israeli civilians near the border. Jabari replaced Baha Abu al-Ata as the group’s commander in northern Gaza after the latter was killed in an Israeli strike in 2019. Israeli leaders said the airstrikes were necessary after the group refused to back down from its intentions to carry out attacks on the Gaza border. Along with Jabari, the IDF also said it was targeting the head of the PIJ’s guided anti-tank missile array and several platoons preparing attacks. Islamic Jihad had been threatening since Tuesday to attack – to bolster its demand that Israel release its West Bank commander, Bassem Saadi, who was captured in an IDF raid in Jenin on Monday – prompting days of road closures and blockades community in areas near the Gaza border under immediate threat. Egypt, meanwhile, has been trying to mediate between the sides in recent days, but has failed to persuade Islamic Jihad to back down. Egyptian negotiators on Saturday proposed a cessation of hostilities to create an opportunity to negotiate a long-term ceasefire. A missile from Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system is fired from the outskirts of the southern Israeli city of Sderot on August 6, 2022. (Jack Guez/AFP) The PIJ rejected the proposal for a temporary ceasefire, Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen TV reported. “Now is the time to respond to the crimes of occupation,” a PIJ source told the network. Israeli officials said the operation in Gaza specifically targeted the PIJ, hoping to keep Hamas largely out of the conflict, as it did during the 2019 flare-up after the killing of a previous Islamic Jihad leader, Abu al-Ata . As of Saturday night, Hamas appeared to be effectively staying out of the fray for now. Although its leaders’ statements have included strong anti-Israel rhetoric, it has so far refrained from engaging in attacks. Palestinians in Gaza fire rockets into Israel on August 5, 2022. (Mahmud Hams/AFP) 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. Gantz authorized the call-up of up to 25,000 reserve troops, his office said.
