The IDF increased its attacks on Islamic Jihad in Gaza from around Friday noon until 3:30 p.m. in response to the terror group increasing rocket attacks in the early afternoon against the Beit Shemesh, West Bank and Gaza corridor areas.
Until those rocket attacks, there was an approximately 13-hour-long absence of Islamic Jihad rockets and reduced IDF airstrikes.
With Israel saying that ceasefire talks were off until Islamic Jihad both completely ceases firing rockets (it has twice for about half-a-day each since Wednesday) and drops any conditions, the terror group threatened to continue its rockets through Jerusalem Day on May 19.
Increasing concerns Hamas will join
Though Hamas was still mostly staying out of the fray, there were increasing concerns that a drawn out conflict could force the group to join the fight.
Earlier Friday, a home in Sderot suffered a direct rocket hit.
No one was injured in the hit, the Sderot Municipality said, adding that infrastructural damage was caused to the home.
A rocket also landed on the rooftop of an empty home in the Gaza border kibbutz of Nir Am, Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council said. Damage was caused to the home.
Rockets were also simultaneously launched toward Jerusalem and the West Bank area for the first time in Operation Shield and Arrow, which entered its fourth day on Friday.
A rocket fell near the Gush Etzion settlement of Bat Ayin, according to preliminary Israeli reports.
The Gush Etzion Regional Council opened an emergency hotline on Friday for residents in need of assistance or information following the rocket. barrage on the area.
"The sirens and rockets have reached us as well. I ask that our residents follow the instructions given by the IDF Home Front Command," Shlomo Ne'eman, Yesha council chairman, said. "I would also like to show our support for our security forces, the IDF, and encourage the political echelon to continue fighting against the criminal terrorist organizations who have turned Gaza into a hornet's nest of terror."
IDF strikes Islamic Jihad outposts, rocket launch sites in Gaza
The IDF struck Islamic Jihad outposts and rocket launch sites in airstrikes carried out over the Gaza Strip early on Friday morning.
The IDF has attacked at least 215 Islamic Jihad targets across Gaza since the operation began with the targeted assassinations of three PIJ senior leaders on Tuesday morning.
However, the IDF has not killed any Islamic Jihad leaders since it killed a fifth leader around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Further, the IDF has not mobilized the reserves in any large numbers to threaten a ground invasion – as it did in 2008-2009, 2014 and 2021.
Netanyahu: Operation will continue for as long as necessary
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Mossad Director David Barnea held a security assessment Friday afternoon from Gallant’s home where he was mourning the recent death of his mother (unrelated to the conflict.)
The Israeli military will continue its operation in Gaza for "as long as necessary," Netanyahu said in comments issued following the situational assessment on Thursday. Netanyahu instructed security forces to "continue to exact a heavy price from the Islamic Jihad for its aggression against the citizens of Israel."
On Thursday night, the first Israeli victim of the barrage of Islamic Jihad rockets from Gaza was killed in Rehovot with reports of over a dozen newly injured Israelis, a large number of them from Rehovot.
This latest round of conflict between Israel and Islamic Jihad had its roots in rockets that Israel faced on multiple fronts over the Passover holiday as well as over 100 rockets which the terror group fired at Israel over May 2-3.
Islamic Jihad said it fired the May 2-3 rockets as revenge for one of its top leaders dying from a hunger strike while in Israeli detention.
Although the IDF responded mildly to Islamic Jihad’s rocket attacks back on May 2-3, Netanyahu and Gallant already on May 2 ordered Israel’s security forces to prepare a much more substantial attack for the near future.
That attack was rolled out overnight between Monday and Tuesday with the killing of three top Islamic Jihad officials.
The Jerusalem Post learned on Thursday that those original officials who were killed were even higher up in the organization than the Islamic Jihad officials killed on Thursday.