Health authorities in Palestinian enclave report 12 dead in Israeli attacks targeting Islamic Jihad
\n Gaza
\nIsrael has bombed the Gaza Strip for a second day in what it described as a \u201cpre-emptive operation\u201d against a Palestinian militant group, in the worst escalation of violence since last year\u2019s 11-day war.
\nIsraeli warplanes hit several sites in the blockaded territory on Friday, part of a surprise operation named \u201cBreaking Dawn\u201d that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said thwarted alleged planned rocket attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While it sometimes acts independently, Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the strip.
\nAs exchanges of fire continued and Israel appeared to broaden the operation on Saturday morning, health authorities in the Palestinian coastal enclave said 12 people had been killed by Israeli airstrikes, including an Islamic Jihad commander, Tayseer Jabari, and civilians including a five-year-old girl and 22-year-old art student. Approximately 80 more people were injured.
\nIslamic Jihad called the initial Israeli bombardment a \u201cdeclaration of war\u201d, firing a barrage of at least 100 rockets into southern Israel on Friday night. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage, with many rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defence system, but 13 people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
\nThe hostilities have left people in Gaza afraid of another round of war, which would be the fourth serious conflict in Gaza since Hamas seized control of the strip in 2007. Israel and Egypt closed the strip\u2019s borders a year later, leaving the area\u2019s 2 million residents grappling with unemployment, crumbling medical infrastructure and little electricity and clean water.
\nHamas announced its support for Islamic Jihad and said it would also respond to the strikes. \u201cThe resistance, with all its arms and military factions, is united in this campaign and will have the last word,\u201d the group said in a statement.
\nEgypt, historically a mediator between Israel and armed groups in Gaza, said it had been informed by Israel that Breaking Dawn would be a smaller-scale assault, but no negotiations have yet been opened.
\nThis weekend\u2019s violence comes after days of tension sparked by the arrest of Bassem al-Saadi, Islamic Jihad\u2019s top commander in the occupied West Bank. The IDF has conducted near-nightly raids across the West Bank since mid-March, in response to a wave of Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli citizens.
\nWhile Islamic Jihad did not launch rockets after Saadi\u2019s arrest, Israel has insisted through the week that the group is seeking revenge, closing the Erez crossing used by Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel, and shutting down roads and restricting movement of civilians in Israel\u2019s south as a precaution.
\nIsraeli tanks and armour were lined up along the frontier on Friday, after the military said on Thursday it was reinforcing its troops.
\n\u201cIsrael isn\u2019t interested in a wider conflict in Gaza, but will not shy away from one either,\u201d the Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, said in a televised address on Friday.
\nThe Gaza Strip has remained relatively quiet since the war in May last year, which killed 256 people in Gaza and 14 people in Israel.
\nIsrael elected a coalition government a month later that for the first time included members of an independent Arab-Israeli party, opposed to escalation with Palestinians. It also increased the number of work permits for Palestinians in Gaza to enter Israel in an attempt to alleviate the strip\u2019s crushing poverty.
\nThe short-lived coalition collapsed in June. Lapid, the caretaker prime minister, is preparing for elections on 1 November in which he faces pressure from Israel\u2019s right wing to appear tough on terrorism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Health authorities in Palestinian enclave report 12 dead in Israeli attacks targeting Islamic Jihad Gaza Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip for a second day in what it described as a \u201cpre-emptive operation\u201d against a Palestinian militant group, in the worst escalation of violence since last year\u2019s 11-day war. Israeli warplanes hit several sites in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-276024","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n