The Israeli army targeted Hamas positions, yet remained aloof from this week of clashes with the Jewish state.
On Saturday, November 16, the Israeli army bombed the Gaza Strip with positions of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist movement that had been left out this week of clashes with Israel, testifying to the fragility of a ceasefire. in force.
Shortly after 5:00 am (local time), the Israeli army announced strikes on the Gaza Strip, after intercepting, according to her, two rockets with its anti-ball missile Iron Dome. But, a significant change since the beginning of the week, Israel said it targeted "Hamas targets" and not Islamic Jihad, Islamist movement considered more radical but less powerful than the first.
According to Palestinian security sources, the Israeli strikes targeted two Hamas sites in the north of this three-fold-large enclave like Paris and where two million Palestinians live under Israeli blockade.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army conducted a targeted operation in Gaza against an Islamic Jihad commander who responded with a rocket fire at Israel. In response to these rockets, the Israeli army had increased the number of strikes aimed at, according to them, elements of the Islamic Jihad on Gaza but avoiding targeting Hamas, a movement that controls the enclave and has for months had a truce with Israel.
Precarious truce
"During the operation, we made a distinction between Hamas and Islamic Jihad"said the spokesman of the Israeli army, Jonathan Conricus. "We wanted to keep Hamas out of the fighting"he had summed up.
For its part, Hamas had decided not to help Islamic Jihad, as the movement probably did not want to jeopardize a truce with Israel – negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), the United Nations Egypt and Qatar – providing millions of dollars in monthly assistance.
After two days of clashes, which left 34 dead in the Gaza Strip and none in Israel, targeting 450 rockets, Islamic Jihad and the Israeli state agreed to a ceasefire, which came into effect on Thursday morning. But it is still precarious, the aviation having bombed already Friday Gaza after firing of rockets since this Palestinian territory after the entry into force of the cease-fire.
On Thursday morning, Israeli forces killed eight members of the same family in Deir Al-Balah, in the southern Gaza Strip. The strike had killed Rasmi Abu Malhous, presented by Israeli forces as a " commanding officer " of Islamic Jihad but by this movement as a simple "Affiliate member"as well as his two wives and five children.
Civilian victims
But Friday, Israel recognized that this strike on the family Abu Malhous had civilian casualties 'Unexpected'. According to the information available to the army during the strike, it was not expected that it will make civilian casualties, said Friday the army in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse, about the Deir Al-Balah's strike.
"Israeli armed forces investigate the harm done to civilians during the strike", added the army, which this week accused Islamic Jihad fighters of using "Human shields" to guard against strikes.
Survivors of this strike, including children who had been orphaned, had been transported to a local hospital. "They are innocent and they will only have painful memories. It will take time for them to recover ", said Eid Abu Malhous on Thursday, an extended family member who was trying to comfort the survivors.
The Tuesday-to-Thursday sequence is the deadliest in Gaza since clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian civilians killed about 60 people on 14 May 2018, the day the Jerusalem embassy was inaugurated in Jerusalem.
