Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Gaza attack, counterattack
Rockets fly out of Gaza toward Israel on Tuesday in a wave of launches retaliating against an Israeli attack that killed a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. Israel described the commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, as a “ticking bomb.” Islamic Jihad called the Israeli attack “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people.”
JERUSALEM — Waves of retaliatory rocket attacks were launched from the Gaza Strip after Israeli forces killed a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group early Tuesday.
The timing of Israel’s attack, after a period of relative calm along the border and amid a protracted, highstakes negotiation over who will lead Israel’s next government, led some critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say it was politically motivated.
Netanyahu insisted that the timing was dictated by Israel’s security chiefs, whose recommendation he had merely endorsed.
Israel described the Gaza commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, as a “ticking bomb” who was “responsible for most of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s activity in the Gaza Strip.” Islamic Jihad said that the commander’s wife, Asmaa Abu el-Atta, was also killed in the 4 a.m. missile strike.
Before 6 a.m., militants in Gaza began firing barrages of rockets toward southern and central Israel from the Palestinian coastal enclave.
Islamic Jihad called the Israeli strike “a declaration of war against the Palestinian people” and said, “Our response to this crime will have no limits.”
Schools were closed in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area as air-raid sirens blared and Iron Dome missiles intercepted dozens of rockets. Tens of thousands of Israelis took cover in bomb shelters.
Islamic Jihad also blamed Israel for another missile attack at dawn Tuesday on the Damascus, Syria, home of Akram al-Ajouri, describing him as a member of the group’s political bureau in Syria.
Al-Ajouri was reported to have survived. The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that a son of al-Ajouri and another person were killed.
Al-Ajouri is said to be the direct superior of Abu el-Atta. The Israeli military would not comment on the Damascus airstrike.
The fighting Tuesday created an awkward situation for Hamas, the larger Islamic militant group that rules the Gaza Strip.
While Hamas functions as the local government, with a strong political base, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has fewer followers and no responsibilities except to its patrons in Iran, has taken a harder line toward Israel.
Hamas has tried for months to enforce informal cease-fire understandings with Israel — which Palestinian Islamic Jihad has often disrupted with rocket or sniper attacks — in return for cash from Qatar.
It now has to decide whether to raise the stakes by joining the group in avenging Abu el-Atta’s death, or to stand down in hopes of restoring calm.
Hamas said that it, too, mourned Abu el-Atta’s death and that his killing would not go unpunished, but the group stopped short of saying it would join the fighting.
The Israeli military said Abu el-Atta was to blame for rocket fire on Nov. 1 and in August, and said he was being closely monitored recently because he was planning a specific new attack against Israel.
His name had cropped up frequently in the reporting of Israeli military correspondents — which an army spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said was no accident, and was meant as a warning.
But some Israeli analysts suggested that an incident on Sept. 10, a week before the last Israeli election, may have sealed Abu el-Atta’s fate: When Netanyahu made a campaign stop in Ashdod — at a location announced in advance, breaking with customary security precautions — a rocket attack sent the prime minister and his entourage scurrying offstage to shelter.
Amit Segal, a commentator on Israel’s Channel 12, wrote on Twitter that there had been an “invisible laser marker” on the heads of both Abu el-Atta and his Damascus superior from that moment.
Conricus said the attack Tuesday was timed to minimize the chance of other deaths or injuries.
Some 190 rockets were fired on Israel over the course of the day. Dozens were intercepted by air-defense systems, the military said. At least one man was wounded by shrapnel, officials said, but most casualties were minor and involved people hurt as they raced to shelters or treated for panic or fainting.
Gaza health officials put the casualties there at 10 dead and 45 wounded.
Israel refrained for several hours from additional strikes, saying it wanted to avoid an escalation, although it struck what it said were two Islamic Jihad operatives preparing to launch a rocket around 11 a.m.
But with rocket launches continuing, Israel began more broadly attacking Islamic Jihad targets in the early afternoon, announcing the strikes on Twitter with the hashtag #JiHadEnough.