IAF strikes Gaza Strip 3 times in 24 hours; 5 killed

Air force hits rocket-launching terror cell in Gaza, killing 2, wounding 2; PRC: "Occupation" to bear consequences for crimes.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, HERB KEINON
Funeral for Gaza terrorist killed by IDF (photo credit: reuters)
Funeral for Gaza terrorist killed by IDF
(photo credit: reuters)
The IAF struck a rocket-launching cell in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday evening soon after it fired projectiles at an Israeli farming district, the IDF said.
Palestinian medical sources said the air strike killed two men and wounded two others.
Israeli strikes killed a total of five global jihad members over the past 24 hours.
“The terrorist cell which fired rockets into Israel a short while ago was targeted,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said, confirming the strike. “An accurate strike was identified.”
Following the attack, the Popular Resistance Committees confirmed that the dead belonged to their organization, and vowed retaliation against Israel, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
The terror group stated that Izz Addin Abu Nuseira, 23, and Ahmad Abu Fatayir, 22, were both members of the PRC's military wing.
"We hereby announce that it’s time to pay the toll and the occupation will have to bear the consequences of its crimes," Ma'an quoted the PRC as saying. The group also confirmed that the two members had fired five mortar shells at Israel on Saturday.
Early on Sunday morning, the Israel Air Force struck a terrorist rocket-launching crew in Gaza that was about to fire at southern Israel, killing one member. The air strike came after Palestinian rocket attacks on the Eshkol region overnight.
An Israeli strike against two men on a motorbike in northern Gaza on Saturday night killed the commander of a jihadi-Salafi terrorist group, Palestinian medical sources said. The man has been named as Hisham al- Saedni, also known as Abu al- Waleed al-Maqdissi, believed to head the Tawhid and Jihad (“One God and Holy War”) group. Saedni and his accomplice had fired rockets into southern Israel, took part in terrorist attacks on Israel from the Sinai Peninsula, and were in the final stages of plotting a new attack, an IDF source said.
Tawid and Jihad is a rival of Hamas, shares an Islamist ideology with al-Qaida, and sources have said that Saedni joined al-Qaida in Iraq at the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003.
Hamas detained Saedni in March 2011, freeing him this past August after 17 months.
Last year, men identifying themselves with Tawhid and Jihad kidnapped and killed a pro- Palestinian Italian activist for the International Solidarity Movement, Vittorio Arrigoni, in an apparent attempt to secure the release of Saedni.
On Friday, a Palestinian Grad missile fired at Netivot triggered air raid sirens, sending residents running for cover, before exploding in the backyard of a family home. The projectile sent shrapnel flying into the home, piercing the walls of the building’s walls, including a boy’s bedroom. One civilian was treated for shock and then taken to the hospital, Negev police said.
A few hours after the rocket attack, the air force responded by striking three terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Friday.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised the IDF’s actions in Gaza during Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, saying Israel would continue to act aggressively and with full strength both in response to attacks from Gaza, and to prevent others.
In parallel, the prime minister said, the government was actively battling cyber attacks on the country’s computers. Netanyahu said that he established a national cyber bureau last year to deflect such attacks.
This cyber staff was working on stopping such attacks by developing a “digital Iron Dome” to defend against “computer terrorism,” he said.
“Just as we have the Iron Dome against missiles and a security fence against infiltrators and terrorism, we will also have a similar response to cyber attacks,” Netanyahu said. “But just like the building of the fence, time is needed to complete it, and we are working on this non-stop.”