Team News Riveting
The Israeli forces today killed a senior Palestinian militant commander in an airstrike after a night of heavy bombardment that saw hundreds of bombs dropped on Gaza.
“This is the moment we targeted Islamic Jihad Northern Division Commander in Gaza, Hussam Abu Harbid. As an Islamic Jihad commander for 15 years, he was behind rocket launches, shootings, & anti-tank missile attacks on Israel. He won’t be committing any more terrorist attacks,” the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a tweet.
Harbid was the commander of the Northern Division of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). Though the PIJ did not confirm the report of Harbid’s death, it launched rocket fire from inside Gaza at cities in southern Israel that left at least eight people wounded.
A missile scored a direct hit on a residential building in Ashdod, the Magen David Adom emergency service said, with at least three people wounded by shrapnel in that attack, and amid fears more could be trapped in rubble. Five other people suffered panic attacks.
The death toll from a week of fighting now stands at 211, with 201 dead on the Palestinian side according to Gaza’s health authority, including 58 children and 34 women.
Monday morning’s strikes came after an overnight bombardment described by witnesses as the heaviest of the conflict so far, with 54 Israeli jets dropping bombs on 35 targets in and around Gaza City in just 20 minutes.
The IDF said the strikes targeted around nine miles of Hamas tunnels, referred to by the military as ‘the Metro’, along with the homes of senior Hamas commanders that were also used as weapons stores.
