IDF targets 20 Gaza terror sites in one hour

IAF hits terror cells, rocket pads; Palestinian deaths near 120.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN, JPOST.COM STAFF
Smoke from explosion in Gaza Strip [file] (photo credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters)
Smoke from explosion in Gaza Strip [file]
(photo credit: Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters)
The IDF targeted 20 terror sites in the Gaza Strip within one hour, the IDF Spokesperson tweeted on Tuesday night, on the seventh day of Operation Pillar of Defense.
Terrorists in the Gaza Strip continued to fire rockets at Israel Tuesday night, amid reports of an imminent cease-fire.
Earlier Tuesday IAF planes dropped leaflets over northern Gaza warning residents to leave the area immediately.
At 2:20 PM, shortly after a rocket was fired into the Jerusalem area, the IDF began striking Gaza-based terror cell members. Airstrikes hit two Hamas members in northern Gaza. Shortly thereafter, the IDF destroyed 30 rocket launchers and a Hamas hideout used as a weapons storage facility.
Some 120 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, have been killed since Wednesday. Three Israeli civilians were killed in a rocket attack last week.
The targets of Tuesday afternoon's strikes included rocket-launching cells preparing to launch projectiles into Israel. Another strike targeted members of the Army of Islam Salafi group, which took part in the Gilad Schalit kidnapping. Six people were killed in the air strike.
 
Click for full JPost coverage
Click for full JPost coverage
A separate strike targeted an Islamic Jihad site, killing Yunish Shaluf, who was responsible for rocket fire on Eilat several months earlier.
The IDF has often pointed to months of intelligence gathering that allowed it to launch pinpoint strikes against terrorists on the move, rocket-launching pads and weapons facilities.
Palestinians in the Strip on Tuesday shot dead six alleged collaborators in the Gaza Strip who "were caught red-handed," according to a security source quoted by the Hamas Aqsa radio.
"They possessed hi-tech equipment and filming equipment to take footage of positions," it said.
The Hamas radio said the men, who were suspected of working for Israel, were shot. It did not elaborate.
Israeli air strikes also killed two cameramen working for al-Aqsa TV and an educational programming director for the al-Quds channel, both affiliated with Hamas.
The cameramen were killed in their car not far from the main Shifa hospital in Gaza city. The al-Quds program director was killed in his car in the central Gaza Strip.
Their deaths have sparked outrage among Gaza's press corps and also from Hamas, which accused Israel of trying to suppress coverage of Israeli attacks in the coastal enclave.
Palestinians fired over 100 rockets into Israel Tuesday afternoon, Israel Police reported.
The Iron Dome anti-rocket system intercepted over 35 rockets.
Reuters contributed to this report.