A small al-Qaida-linked group based in the Gaza Strip hailed on Friday an
attack in the South near Egypt that killed eight, and said Israel should expect more similar attacks.
The
Tawheed and Jihad group also mourned the leader of the Popular
Resistance Committees who died in an IAF strike on Thursday that also
killed a nine-year-old Palestinian boy.
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Timeline of the attacks on the Sinai borderA
number of other PRC members were also killed in the retaliatory IAF air
strike including the head of the terror group Kamal Nirab, who the Shin
Bet (Israel Security Agency) said had personally directed and planned
the attack.
"We in the Tawheed and Jihad group bless these
blessed arms that pounded the fortifications of the vendeta-filled
Jewish enemy in the so-called Eilat area in southern occupied
Palestine," the group said in a statement posted on the Internet.
It said the attack had sent Israel and "their border guards in the
Egyptian army" a message that Egypt has joined the struggle against what
it called "the enemies of God."
During the IAF attack on Thursday, another man was killed and identified
as Amas Hamed, commander of the PRC’s military wing and a resident of
Rafah. The Shin Bet said that Hamed was involved in the abduction of IDF
soldier Gilad Schalit in June 2006 and oversaw numerous attacks against
Israel including suicide bombings and rocket attacks.
Two other known PRC terrorists, including one who was also involved in Schalit’s abduction, were also killed in the air strike.
“The terrorists were directly involved in the attacks along the Israeli-Egyptian border,” a security official said.
Yaakov Katz contributed to this report.
