In a joint appearance last Wednesday, on the second day of Israel’s Operation Shield and Arrow against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced that key goals of the operation had already been achieved. went – what exactly did they achieve in Netanyahu Specified were the “first two seconds” [of the operation]in the middle of the night,” when the IDF killed three Islamic Jihad commanders in three separate, simultaneous attacks.
Gallant affirmed, “we wiped out the leadership” of Islamic Jihad. And while those first, devastating blasts were followed by hundreds of attacks on sites used by Islamic Jihad for weapons production and storage, on terrorist bases with anti-tank weapons, and on rocket launch pits and rockets ready for firing. but in israel, the defense minister went Claim“The killer organization had no answers.”
intelligence gathering and guided missile capabilities that enable the IDF Remove Not only those first three major targets, but also several other Islamic Jihad commanders over the next few days, truly testify to the astonishing capabilities of the IDF in its relentless fight against Gaza’s terrorist groups.
But the bitter truth is that even after its key leaders were killed, weapons stockpiles were blown up, anti-tank cells were thwarted, and rocket launchers were targeted innumerable, the “murderous organization” continued to operate throughout the four Through days of struggle managed to “answer”. , And was still firing Rocket salvos into Israel in the minutes before and after the ceasefire finally went into effect Saturday night.
People hide behind a wall as a building in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip is hit by an Israeli air strike targeting an Islamic Jihad commander on May 12, 2023. (Bashar Taleb/AFP)
Hours before the ceasefire was agreed on Saturday, Israel’s National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi also said that Israel had achieved its objectives “in the first seconds” of the operation, and then accepted Rather plaintively: “Whatever’s going on, we need to act because they’re firing at us.”
And Islamic Jihad, remember, is the evil little Iranian-mobilized sister to the much larger, far better equipped and far more powerful terrorist group, Hamas, which actually rules Gaza.
With a force estimated at “only” around 10,000 and relatively limited rocket supplies, relentlessly targeted by the powerful IDF, Islamic Jihad nevertheless managed to keep half of Israel in or inside sealed rooms and bomb shelters for five days.
Rescue workers examine a building damaged by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip in Rehovot near Tel Aviv on May 11, 2023. An Israeli woman died in the attack. (Ahmed Gharabli/AFP)
Orna Mizrahi, a former deputy head of the National Security Council, said in a Channel 12 interview on Saturday night that the debilitating blow suffered by Islamic Jihad during Operation Shield and Arrow has helped strengthen Israeli deterrence – as has Gaza In relation to both the terrorist groups of And people like Hezbollah across the northern border.
She argued that Israel’s Operation Power—began on Israel’s time—a week before former Islamic Jihad spokesman Khader Adnan chose to end his life in a hunger strike while being confronted by more than 100 Israelis. More projectiles were fired. The charges of terrorism – in Israeli custody – have helped dispel Israel’s enemies from a perception that Israel is weakened by its internal divisions over the government’s currently suspended judicial reform plans.
This is certainly what the government and security establishment would like to believe. There are also those who regard Hamas’s decision to stay out of this round of conflict, as it has stayed out of previous rounds of conflict with Islamic Jihad, as evidence that Gaza’s rulers are currently in favor of Israel. Eager to avoid confrontation with Israel, as they seek to avoid unleashing a new wave of mayhem on Gaza, deepening Gaza’s poverty and undermining their popularity.
Clearly, Israel has done its best to avoid engaging Hamas in the conflict, focusing its airstrikes solely on Islamic Jihad targets, and repeatedly publicly insisting that it only supports Islamic Jihad. Was targeting, not Hamas.
At the same time, however, staying out of a succession of recent Islamic Jihad-Israel conflicts – and Israel choosing not to hold Hamas responsible for the actions of its evil sister, and choosing not to target Hamas people or property – The day has come for Gaza’s rulers, left free and unfettered to quietly build up their military assets for use against Israel.
Israelis flee to shelters as rocket warning sirens sound after Palestinian terrorists fire rockets toward Israel in the Gaza Strip during a Jerusalem Day march on May 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Shalit)
When will that day come? A test will come on Thursday, when the Jerusalem Day flag march is again set to parade through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City – an event chosen by Hamas Target fired rockets into Jerusalem two years earlier, forced the march to be abandoned, and even disrupted the activities of the Knesset.
The assessment in the Israeli security establishment is clearly that Thursday’s march from Gaza is likely to pass without a further escalation of violence. So there have been repeated promises from Jerusalem over the past few days that the march through the Muslim Quarter will proceed as scheduled.
Sooner or later, however, Hamas will see the moment is right to confront Israel directly again. Its objective is its desire to destroy the State of Israel. And leaving that bloody organization without an answer from Israel’s military capabilities, however excellent, is a far more difficult challenge than that presented by Islamic Jihad.
