Thirteen Palestinians were killed — including a five-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman — and about 90 were wounded during the latest attacks on Gaza Strip on Friday and Saturday by Israeli occupation forces.
Israeli occupation forces called the operation ‘The Truthful Dawn’ and justified its choice of that name “to confirm our focus on the Islamic Jihad Movement.”
It also threatened to expand its attacks on Gaza if the Islamic resistance group Hamas intervened and supported the Islamic Jihad Movement in facing Israeli aggression.
On Friday evening, the Al-Quds Brigades — the military arm of the Islamic Jihad Movement — announced the launch of the ‘Unity of Squares Operation’ in response to the aggression.
On Saturday, the Israeli aircrafts intensified their bombardment on the Gaza Strip, completely destroying two houses and targeting a number of sites in different areas of the war-torn strip. It also fired a number of missiles towards a house in the Sheikh Ajlin District that is west of Gaza.
Israel’s raids also included the Shejaiya District that is east of Gaza and another raid in the city of Khan Yunis in the south of the strip.
Moreover, Israeli aircrafts targeted two military sites belonging to the Al-Quds Brigades south of Deir Al-Balah and west of Khan Yunis. The fighters also targeted a watch tower used by Palestinian factions near the border strip with Israel in the centre of the strip.
In a statement, Israeli occupation forces said that the raids also targeted sites for the production of improvised explosive devices and materials used in the production of rockets, in addition to targeting sites for the manufacture of mortar shells.
It added that it launched 30 raids on more than 40 targets belonging to the Islamic Jihad Movement and fired 55 missiles and shells during the first day of the operation; since then, the number of missiles has increased to 200, according to Israeli media.
In response, the Islamic Jihad Movement launched about 160 rockets towards Israel, about 130 of which crossed the border into Israeli territory, 60 of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome, while the remaining shells landed in open areas, according to an Israeli statement.
Furthermore, the Al-Quds Brigades said that they bombed Tel Aviv, Ben Gurion Airport, Ashdod, Beersheba, Ashkelon, Netivot, and Sderot with 60 missiles. It also announced the targeting of Israeli vehicles at a military site in Fajjah on the Gaza border.
