Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian militants agreed to a truce Sunday evening after a weekend of violence.
Summary
Israel and Palestinian militants based in the Gaza Strip agreed to a truce Sunday evening after a weekend of violence.
- Israel launched the first wave of airstrikes on Friday targeting Palestinian Islamic Jihad after Israeli forces arrested a senior Islamic Jihad militant last week.
- Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the Gaza Strip’s two leading Islamist militant organizations. However, Islamic Jihad is supplied by Iran and has an arsenal of long-range rockets capable of reaching deep into Israeli territory.
- Two senior Islamic Jihad commanders have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and Islamic Jihad launched hundreds of rockets against Israel in response.
- Hamas, the larger Islamist militant group that governs Gaza, has stayed out of the conflict so far, possibly out of fear of Israeli reprisals and to maintain economic relations with Israel.
- Hamas officials claim 31 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict and claim a third of those deaths were civilians.
- Israel claims its Iron Dome missile defense system has shot down 97% of the 580 Palestinian rockets launched at their territory since Friday.
- The New York Times reported that Israeli security officials “signaled to mediators that they are ready to wind down their airstrikes after achieving key military objectives” including killing two of Islamic Jihad’s top military commanders.
- According to CNN, Islamic Jihad fired more than 450 rockets and mortars at Israel as of Saturday evening, with nearly 30 percent of those landing inside Gaza itself.
- The Guardian noted the conflict was the worst outbreak of violence since an 11-day war in May 2021 between Israel and Hamas, the Gaza Strip’s larger Islamic militant group. Hamas has not fully intervened in the current conflict as the organization is still recovering from the 2021 conflict.
- The Wall Street Journal traced the immediate causes of the weekend’s violence. Israel arrested a senior PIJ commander last week, leading PIJ to threaten imminent attacks on Israel. Israel then began its air campaign on Friday to stop the threat.
- FOX News reported that Israeli forces arrested nearly two dozen alleged militants on Saturday night. The death toll rose to 32 on Sunday, including at least six children. The Israeli Defense Forces claim most civilian casualties have come from Palestinian rockets that fell short of their targets.
- Breitbart wrote Israel “appears to have the decisive upper hand” in the battle against Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Iranian-backed terror group. As of Sunday, there have not been any reported Israeli casualties after three days of violence.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
