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As the violence between the Israeli military and the Palestinians in Gaza stretched into the fifth day, Egypt-led mediation efforts for a cease-fire could not end the fighting, making this round of clashes among the longest in the new year.
The fighting has persisted as the militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, has failed to draw in Hamas – the more powerful Islamist militant organization that controls Gaza – or other major factions. The fighters of Islamic Jihad, alone in the battlefield, have suffered a heavy blow.
Some experts attribute the stamina of Islamic Jihad – which Israel, the United States and many other Western countries have classified as a terrorist organization – to the fact that, unlike Hamas, it is not responsible for Gaza’s poorest population of more than two million. people. Instead, focus only on the long-term goal of replacing Israel with an Islamic state.
“It exists for only one purpose: to fight and ‘liberate’ the country,” Zakaria al-Qaq, a Palestinian expert on national security based in East Jerusalem, said of Islamic Jihad.
“They have no ministerial posts or parliamentary seats to protect and no privileges except death,” he said, adding that the group has earned the respect of many Palestinians, who sympathize with Gazans living under a land, air and sea blockade. which is strict. by Israel and Egypt.
Israel also maintains that Iran, the patron of Islamic Jihad, has set its agenda while the group’s leaders live in exile. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman of the Israeli military, said last week that the leader of the group, “lives in hotels in Beirut and Damascus and drives a Mercedes” while on the payroll of Iran, they are “OK with Gaza bleeding.”
The previous rounds of the war between Israel and Islamic Jihad – in April, in August last year and in November 2019 – all ended in about 50 hours or less.
But in a television interview in October, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, the exiled leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, said the group had made a “strategic mistake” two months before agreeing to a truce after 50 hours, according to local and regional officials. pressure. He said it was possible to continue fighting and achieve “concrete results on the field.”
This time, Israel has denied that it is ready for an unconditional ceasefire, but has also said it is ready to continue the offensive. For its part, Islamic Jihad cited “loyal popular support” on Saturday and said “the resistance has been preparing itself for months of confrontation.”
Two important events on the calendar in the coming weeks have the potential to draw more Arab support to the group’s cause.
On Monday, Palestinians and their supporters will mark the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees fled or were driven from their homes in the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948 and hundreds of Palestinian villages were destroyed. in Israel today. Then, this coming week, tens of thousands of Israeli nationalists are expected to march through the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City with flags in the annual march to commemorate Israel’s capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
After firing rockets into Jerusalem on Friday, Dawoud Shehab, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, told a local Arab news outlet, “The war is approaching the time of the flag march – that’s why it’s surprising that we continue.”
The trade war side of the fire again overnight and there. The Israeli military said it had struck a mortar and rocket launch site belonging to Islamic Jihad as well as what it described as two of the group’s command centers. And sirens continue to sound in southern Israel, warning of incoming projectile attacks.
Over the past five days, Islamic Jihad has fired more than 1,000 rockets and mortars into Israel, and Israel has struck more than 250 targets linked to the group in Gaza, according to data released by the military. Israeli authorities also said the group fired dozens of mortars into an area near the border crossing between Israel and Gaza, preventing it from opening for the passage of people and goods.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health has reported at least 33 people killed in Gaza, many of them civilians, since the campaign began and more than 100 wounded. In Israel, an elderly woman was killed on Thursday by a rocket fired from Gaza that struck an apartment block in central Israel. Israel’s ambulance service has reported eight injuries from shrapnel and debris, including three it said were injured on Saturday, two seriously. According to Israeli news media, two of the three were Palestinian workers from Gaza.
Israeli officials said the decision to launch an attack on the Islamic Jihad leader was made on May 2, the day the group fired more than 100 rockets and mortars at southern Israel following the death in Israeli custody of Palestinian hunger striker Khader Adnan. , who protested his arrest. Mr. Adnan is the leader of Islamic Jihad from the occupied West Bank. That night, Israel carried out several initial airstrikes in Gaza that killed one person.
Israeli officials said the campaign that began on Tuesday was aimed at destroying Islamic Jihad, a goal achieved in the first seconds of the campaign, and restoring stability to the region. The opening strike killed three key Islamic Jihad commanders and 10 civilians, including children, according to Palestinian health officials. Three other key commanders of the group were killed in attacks later this week.
The United States has supported Israel’s right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks by Islamic Jihad, and has also emphasized the urgency of reaching a ceasefire agreement.
Islamic Jihad has been given several conditions for a ceasefire, including Israel’s commitment to stop assassinations; Mr. Adnan’s body was removed for burial; and the cancellation of the Jerusalem flag parade – a situation that Israel rejects.
Egypt presented a new proposal on Friday night for an unconditional ceasefire, according to diplomats briefed on the talks. But on Saturday, the guns were still talking.
He is Abuheweila contributed reports from Gaza City, and Carol Sutherland from Moshav Ben Ami, Israel.
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