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“Hamas uses the civil platform to shoot at us. It doesn’t
distinguish between civilians and the Israeli army. But we are doing all we can
to distinguish between the two components,” the official told JNS.
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Rockets fired by
Hamas in the Gaza Strip killed a number of Gazan civilians in the first hours
of attacks on Monday, an Israeli security official said on Thursday.
After Hamas fired
rockets at Jerusalem at 6 p.m. local time, three hours passed before the Israel
Defense Forces responded at 9 p.m., according to the source. Yet during those
three hours, he said, 17 Gazan noncombatants were killed by failed rocket
launches that crashed into Gaza areas.
“This is an internal
mistake or a technical problem that happened when they fired,” said the
official.
The official said
that the Israel Defense Forces is making every possible effort to distinguish
between Gazan civilians and enemy combatants, saying, “There are mistakes, but
we are doing everything in our power to distinguish them and putting all of our
resources into this.”
Every target must be
approved by the highest-ranking officer before it is struck as part of the
effort to avoid civilians, the source stressed. The IDF also places warning
calls and drops empty munitions on buildings (“roof-knocking”) before striking
in many cases.
“Hamas uses the
civil platform to shoot at us,” said the official. “It doesn’t distinguish
between civilians and the Israeli army. But we are doing all that we can to
distinguish between the two components.”
Earlier on Thursday,
Defense Minister Benny Gantz approved the call-up of 9,000 reservists, after
the previous approval of 7,000 reservists. The personnel will enter combat
units and support headquarters as part of “Operation Guardian of the Walls,”
Gantz’s office said in a statement, adding that they will be stationed in the
IDF’s Southern, Central and Northern Command in place of other units mobilized
to other missions.
Also on Thursday,
the IDF intercepted an armed drone sent by Hamas over southern Israel.
‘The neighborhood
looks like a rocket-impact area’
IDF spokesperson
Capt. (Res.) Libbi Weiss told JNS that the military had been following the
threat of armed drones by Hamas for a lengthy period, adding that the IDF was
not surprised by the attack.
It shot down a total
of four unmanned aerial vehicles, of which two were explosive drones, according
to Ynet. The report said the Iron Dome air-defense system was used to shoot
down one threat, a second by a Python missile fired by an F-16, while “the
third and fourth were intercepted through a classified means,” said the report.
Israeli Air Force
fighter jets struck the apartment of Samer Abu-Daka, head of the Hamas unmanned
aerial vehicle unit, which was used for military planning and operations.
Hamas and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued firing rockets at southern and central
Israeli cities throughout Thursday. By Thursday afternoon, the IDF clocked more
than 1,750 rocket attacks since the beginning of hostilities with some 300
falling short in Gaza. Iron Dome intercepted 90 percent of projectiles heading
to built-up areas.
At 2 a.m. on
Thursday, a rocket got through the defense systems and smashed into a
residential area in Petach Tikvah, injuring five Israelis and causing damage to
a four-story building.
“I’m standing here
at Petach Tikvah, looking at the damaged building,” said Weiss. “It very much
serves as an unbelievable example of what is going on here. It is miraculous
that they were all able to get into the shelter. The neighborhood looks like a
rocket-impact area. These developments are incredibly concerning to us.”
Earlier on Thursday,
International IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the military had
struck more than 600 enemy targets in Gaza belonging to Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad, and that airstrikes were continuing.
Also on Thursday,
jets hit a Hamas intelligence headquarters, including the main military
observation center used by Hamas. Dozens of Hamas operatives were present at
the site during the Israeli airstrike, said the IDF.
A total of seven
Israelis—six civilians and one IDF soldier—have been killed by terrorist
projectiles since Sunday.
‘We have a set plan
of military targets’
The IDF continued to
hit a range of targets, including a missile manufacturing site belonging to
Hamas and a Hamas naval force site that doubled up as a missile manufacturing
site in central Gaza. Other weapons production sites were hit all over the
Strip. Several buildings used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for
military purposes were hit as well.
An additional
target, described by Conricus as a defensive tunnel, where operatives hide and
move between locations, was hit. “This specific tunnel was dug under a school
and in very close to an infirmary,” he said. “We continue to strike the
different rocket-firing pits, too.”
Israel has been able
to knock out a significant part of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad firing
capability, but “it is by no means totally degraded,” said Conricus. Dozens of
enemy combatants have been killed by IDF strikes, he added.
Wednesday’s IDF
strike that killed a number of Hamas’s senior military leadership had somewhat
of a cooling effect on Hamas, though it was too soon to know how long this
would last, he said.
IDF Chief of Staff
Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi spoke with his U.S. counterpart, Gen. Mark Milley,
chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff on Wednesday, and updated him on the
situation, the challenges Israel faces and its preparations. He also shared
details of Israel’s military planning.
“This was a very
important conversation,” noted Conricus.
“Our posture going
forward is that the IDF is continuing operations. We have a set plan of
military targets belonging to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Our
intention is to continue to strike those targets to derail their military
capabilities to fire at us,” he said.
IDF ground maneuver
units are in “various stages” of preparations at the Gaza border, he added,
though no order has been given by the Israeli government to launch such an
offensive.
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