A sixth senior Islamic Jihad operative who was on Israel's most-wanted list for 26 years has been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, as Palestinian death toll jumps over 30 and rockets target Jerusalem.
A spokesperson for the Islamic Jihad confirmed to Agence France-Presse that senior commander Iyad al-Hassani was killed Friday in an Israeli airstrike. Hassani was a top official in the Islamic Jihad’s military council, and had apparently replaced head of Islamic Jihad in northern Gaza Khalil Bahtini, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday morning.
Violence has resumed in the region after 13 hours of quiet Thursday night and as talks for a cease-fire are frozen. Israel renewed its strikes on Gaza just before noon local time on Friday, after the Islamic Jihad launched salvos of rockets toward southern Israeli communities and the Jerusalem area.
According to the Israeli army, as of 5 p.m. Friday, since the beginning of the fighting on Tuesday morning, 973 rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel and 761 of them crossed the Gaza border. Israel carried out 254 airstrikes in the Gaza Strip during that period. One Israeli has been killed and 45 have been injured since Tuesday.
