A fragile ceasefire, brokered by Egypt, was due to go into effect on Wednesday night, ending two days of cross-border exchanges between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza.
As in previous rounds of fighting there were heavy barrages of rocket fire at Israel, including towards Tel Aviv, followed by more Israeli air strikes in Gaza in the period just before the start of the ceasefire.
According to the Palestinian health ministry a total of 21 Palestinians were killed, including 12 civilians, with 64 wounded. Six residents were killed on Wednesday, including four militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In a live televised address on Wednesday night,Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Islamic Jihad against continuing the rocket fire. “We see you everywhere, you can’t hide,” he said. “We have hit Islamic Jihad with the most significant blow it has ever suffered.”
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The contacts over a truce came after heavy exchanges of fire that began on Wednesday afternoon, a full day and a half after the initial Israeli air strike in which three leading Islamic Jihad commanders were killed while asleep in their homes in the early hours of Tuesday morning, along with at least 10 other residents.
During the two days of fighting militants fired some 400 projectiles towards Israel. Most were aimed at the south of the country, close to the Gaza border, but central Israel was also targeted, including the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, 80km (50 miles) from Gaza. Almost a third of projectiles fell short, according to the Israeli military, landing within the Gaza Strip or in the Mediterranean Sea and 95 per cent heading towards Israeli population centres were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system. Most of the projectiles that landed in Israel fell in open areas with only a few landing in built-up areas.
A number of buildings in southern Israel received direct hits but the buildings were empty when the rockets struck. There were no Israeli fatalities or seriously wounded people. Most of the Israeli casualties were residents who fell while running to a bomb shelter.
Critically, Hamas, which rules in Gaza, opted to stay out of the fighting despite rhetoric from Hamas leaders stressing the unity of all the Palestinian groups in resisting what was termed “Israeli aggression”. Hamas allowed Islamic Jihad cells to fire rockets and provided logistical support but Hamas units did not participate in the fighting.
Israeli air strikes focused on rocket launching cells and underground launch sites. The military spokesperson said more than 50 Islamic Jihad sites had been targeted in the heaviest fighting in nine months.
Israeli officials expressed satisfaction at the conclusion of the current round of fighting, stressing that Israel had taken the Islamic Jihad by surprise killing three of its senior commanders and restoring deterrence without any Israeli fatalities. However, no one is under any illusion that the next round is only a matter of time.
