The Israeli army believes it inflicted “significant” injury on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group, destroying infrastructure together with a tunnel into Israel described as a “flagship” challenge and eliminating its prime brass, the military mentioned Tuesday.
Israel and Islamic Jihad on Sunday halted three days of intense preventing that noticed a whole lot of rockets lobbed at Israeli cities and intense airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip. Dozens of Palestinians had been killed within the spherical of violence, in line with Hamas authorities in Gaza, although Israel blamed errant fireplace by Palestinian fighters for a lot of of these deaths.
In a briefing wrapping up the 66-hour Operation Breaking Dawn, the Israel Defense Forces mentioned it “significantly damaged Palestinian Islamic Jihad and its leadership.”
The military launched the primary airstrikes after indications of an imminent PIJ anti-tank guided missile assault in opposition to Israeli civilians or troopers on the border. Those strikes killed PIJ’s north Gaza commander, Tayseer Jabari.
According to new particulars revealed by the IDF on Tuesday, the IDF used small glide bombs so as to hit Jabari’s sixth-floor condo within the 14-story tower in Gaza City.
The munitions entered the seventh-floor wall at an angle, penetrated the ceiling of the sixth, and solely then exploded, so as to decrease collateral injury, senior officers mentioned.
Troops load missiles onto a fighter jet during Operation Breaking Dawn, in a picture printed by the army on August 9, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)
In one other main airstrike on the second night time of the operation, the PIJ’s south Gaza commander, Khaled Mansour, was killed.
The IDF delayed the strike on Mansour a number of occasions, as his condo was near a playground. The army published a video of it aborting the strike, in a bid to point out its efforts to keep away from harming civilians, even when confronted with the chance to hit a top-tier goal.
Read extra: Operation Breaking Dawn was a tactical success, but won’t be last round of fighting
The IDF struck 170 targets, utilizing fighter jets, armed drones, fight helicopters, and artillery, in line with the briefing.
The targets included 17 commentary posts (six of which had been manned by PIJ operatives), 45 rocket and mortar launching websites, eight army camps, eight weapon caches, six weapon manufacturing services, three targets associated to the PIJ’s naval drive, and an “attack tunnel.”
In complete over the three days, 1,175 rockets and mortars had been launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel. The Iron Dome anti-rocket system intercepted over 380 projectiles fired towards populated areas, at an unprecedented 97 p.c success charge, the IDF mentioned.
An Iron Dome launches a missile to intercept an incoming projectile close to the border with the Gaza Strip during Operation Breaking Dawn, in a picture printed by the army on August 9, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)
The May 2021 battle noticed a 94% interception ratio, up from 89% within the 2014 conflict and 86% in 2012, in line with army knowledge. The excessive interception charge was attributed to upgrades to the protection system, in addition to PIJ’s restricted firepower.
Several rockets managed to evade the system and land in populated areas, inflicting some damage to homes and civilian infrastructure, in addition to barely injuring at the very least 4 individuals, together with two troopers. Dozens extra individuals had been handled for accidents sustained whereas working to shelters and anxiousness.
Rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists towards Israel, in Gaza City, August 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
The IDF nonetheless struggled to stop rocket fireplace on Israel, with officers saying that it had struck simply 10 squads who had been en path to launching an assault or had simply fired rockets.
The army mentioned it centered a lot of its airstrike efforts on rocket storage and manufacturing websites, so as to set PIJ again forward of the subsequent potential battle. The IDF believed these strikes would make it “significantly more difficult” for PIJ to rearm itself, however some officers say it already has hundreds extra rockets prepared.
An F-35 fighter jet is seen during Operation Breaking Dawn, in a picture printed by the army on August 9, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to the IDF’s knowledge, some 200 rockets launched towards Israel fell quick contained in the Gaza Strip. In a number of instances, failed rocket launches killed Palestinian civilians. According to army estimates, at the very least 16 uninvolved Palestinians had been killed in such incidents, a few of them youngsters.
The IDF mentioned essentially the most vital goal of the operation was an attack tunnel it hit on early Sunday. The army mentioned the tunnel, constructed a number of meters underground from the southern Gaza metropolis of Rafah, was for use to “enter and attack Israel by surprise.” The IDF mentioned the tunnel didn’t cross into Israeli territory, as Israel has a high-tech belowground wall guarding its frontier with Gaza from assault tunnels, which as soon as threatened southern cities.
The tunnel was Mansour’s “flagship” challenge, in line with a senior IDF officer.
Supporters of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group march with posters depicting senior commanders Khaled Mansour (L) and Tayseer Jabari, who had been killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, during a rally in Lebanon’s refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh on August 7, 2022. (Anwar Amro/AFP)
Hamas authorities within the Gaza Strip mentioned 45 individuals had been killed amid the preventing, together with 16 youngsters, however it didn’t say how most of the complete killed had been affiliated with terror teams. At least 15 deaths had been claimed as members by the PIJ, Hamas and one other, smaller, terror group.
