Israel and Islamic Jihad Agree to Ceasefire After Deadly Conflict
The three-day conflict between Israeli and Palestinian militants has come to a ceasefire after Israel Defense Forces announced “Operation Breaking Dawn” last Friday. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid says multiple high-ranking officials in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ) are now dead.
The ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, has held between Israeli and Palestinian militants after the deadline came and went Sunday night. PIJ suffered severe blows from the Israeli Defense Force, who killed their commander in the Islamic Jihad Movement, Tayseer Jabari, according to IDF officials.
Earlier in the week, IDF arrested PIJ’s top commander in the West Bank, then learned of active terrorist threats planned by Jabari in retaliation for the arrests. Jabari, who is responsible for planning and executing terrorist attacks on Israel threatened to attack Israeli militants near the Gaza strip, IDF says.
Israel took the offense by reportedly killing Jabari and other Islamic Jihad terrorists and destroying their military posts. IDF says they were able to destroy rocket launching sites, bases and military outposts inside Gaza.
This is the most serious flare-up in tensions between Israel and Gaza in the last year. The Islamic Jihad group fired over 900 rockets into Israel, 96% of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
So far 44 Palestinians were killed and over 200 civilians injured, several of which were children. The IDF says most of the deaths are militants, but some civilians they say were killed by the 200 misfired rockets from PIJ. There have been no reported deaths of Israeli citizens since the conflict started on Friday.
Following “Operation Breaking Dawn,” the IDF reports that the entire PIJ senior leadership in Gaza has been either killed or captured. The operation took place from August 5th to August 7th. The Islamic Jihad group is “An Iranian proxy that wants to destroy the state of Israel,” Lapid says.
President Joe Biden calling on all involved “to fully implement [the ceasefire] and to ensure fuel and humanitarian supplies are flowing into Gaza.” PIJ is a designated terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel. {eoa}
Shelby Lindsay is an assistant editor for Charisma Media.
