Israel launched a series of attacks on the Gaza Strip on Friday after days of tension there. Tayseer Jabari, a leader of Islamic Jihad, was killed in the operation, the radical group said.
Jabari took charge of the group in 2019 after Baha Abu al-Ata was killed. The Israeli attacks follow the arrest of another Jihad leader, Bassam Saadi, in the West Bank earlier this week.
The Hamas-led Gaza Health Ministry said at least seven people had died, one of them a 4-year-old child, and another 40 were injured. Israel says it estimates that between 10 and 20 terrorists have been killed.
In a brief statement, the country’s Defense Forces also said they had declared a “special situation”. The designation gives the authorities more powers over the civilian population on the pretext of promoting public safety, according to The Times of Israel.
Gatherings in areas up to 80 kilometers from the Gaza Strip were banned, and residents of regions close to the border were told to stay close to bomb shelters. Entrances to the region had also been blocked days earlier.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was in the region throughout the day. In a post on Twitter, he said that “terrorists are holding the people of Gaza hostage”. “To our enemies in general and to the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, I say explicitly: your time is limited; the threat will be removed one way or another.”
A similar speech was adopted by the country’s prime minister, Yair Lapid. He argued that the attacks are aimed at removing a terrorist threat to the Israeli people.
