Israeli airstrike kills prominent Islamic Jihad commander
Israeli airstrikes Tuesday killed a prominent senior commander of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip, potentially threatening a major escalation of Israel’s cross-border violence with Iran-backed Palestinians.
Bahaa Abu el-Atta and his wife died overnight in an airstrike on a house in Shajaiyah, Gaza City, Israel’s prime minister’s office said. Israel’s Defense Forces said Abu el-Atta was the militant group’s top commander in Gaza and had orchestrated several recent attacks against Israel. Islamic Jihad vowed revenge.
Separately, in Syria, officials Tuesday said an Israeli airstrike in the capital, Damascus, targeted another Islamic Jihad
commander, Akram al-Ajouri.
Al-Ajouri was not harmed, but the confrontation risks another round of hostilities with Iranian-backed militants who operate in Syria. Syria’s state-run news agency said Israeli warplanes fired three missiles at al-Ajouri’s home, killing his son and granddaughter.
The Israeli military had no comment. Islamic Jihad gets its funding, weapons and guidance from Iran. It often carries out attacks independently of Hamas, the larger militant group that controls Gaza.
Iranian officials rarely, if ever, comment on the activities of its proxies in the region.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is leading a caretaker government after two inconclusive elections, has been criticized by residents on Israel’s southern border with Gaza and political rivals for a tepid response to recent militant attacks.
After an emergency Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said that el-Atta “was in the midst of plotting additional attacks these very days . ... He was a ticking bomb.”
Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s chief challenger in the election and a former military chief, said that the airstrike in Gaza City was “the right decision.”
Islamic Jihad said el-Atta, 42, was undergoing “a heroic act” when he was killed.
Israel’s military said that minutes after the Iran-backed Palestinian group confirmed the death, barrages of rockets were fired toward Israel. More than 50 rockets were fired in just a few hours, with 20 intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system. There were no Israeli casualties.
Israel later started a second wave of airstrikes against Islamic Jihad targets.