According to reports, another Palestinian Islamic Jihad military leader was killed in an early morning Israeli attack on an apartment complex in Gaza on May 11.
Both Palestine and Israel acknowledged the murder of Ali Hassan Ghali, also known as Abu Muhammad, the alleged chief of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's (PIJ) missile section.
According to the Al-Quds Brigades, the PIJ's military branch, "Ali Ghali... commander of the rocket launch unit... was assassinated in the south of the Gaza Strip along with other martyrs."
Ghali, along with two other Islamic Jihad members killed in the attack, were sheltering in a safe house in Khan Younis at the time of the strike, according to a separate statement translated by local media.
The IDF went on to say that Ghali was also in charge of directing and carrying out rocket attacks on Israeli land, including the recent barrages during offensive Shield and Arrow, Israel's newest offensive in Gaza.
The IDF stated on Twitter that Ghali was "entrusted with all routine force activity and held a central role in the instruction and launching of rocket fire toward Israel, including the recent barrage of rockets toward Israeli territory."
“Ghazi also instructed and took part in launching the barrages of rockets toward Israel during Operations Guardian of the Walls and Breaking Dawn,” it said, referring to previous Israeli operations.
On May 9, the IDF confirmed the death of three Palestinian Islamic Jihad military leaders in a "targeted operation against the Islamic Jihad terror organization in the Gaza Strip."
Khalil Bahtini, the Islamic Jihad commander for the northern Gaza Strip, Tareq Izzeldeen, the group's mediator between Gaza and West Bank members, and Jehad Ghanam, the secretary of the Islamic Jihad's military council, were named as the commanders.
The IDF also hit Islamic Jihad terrorist infrastructure in Gaza, including weapons manufacturing centers and military installations, according to an official statement.
“The strikes were carried out with pinpoint accuracy based on real-time intelligence while making efforts to avoid harming uninvolved civilians as much as possible,” the IDF said.
According to several sources, the May 9 strikes killed two of the officers' wives, as well as several of their children and civilian neighbors.
The new killings occur amid escalating combat between Israel and militants in Gaza, which has risen substantially since Tuesday, despite an Egypt-brokered truce, in retaliation to the death of a Palestinian detainee on a hunger strike in an Israeli jail.
According to Israel's military, over 500 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel since then, with 110 of them missing their objectives and landing in Gaza. So yet, no injuries have been recorded from Israeli airstrikes, but 32 Israelis have allegedly been treated—17 for anxiety and 15 who collapsed on their way to bunkers.
Since the conflict began, 25 people have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. According to the government, 76 Palestinians were injured in the air assaults.
During a televised address on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that the recent attacks by Israeli troops had inflicted a "harsh blow" to the terrorists, but that the military is "still in the midst of a campaign."
“At this very moment, our forces are fiercely attacking the Gaza Strip and exacting a heavy price from the terrorist organizations,” the prime minister said. “Up to now, we have inflicted upon Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza the hardest blow in its history. Within mere seconds, at night, at three separate locations, we simultaneously eliminated the terrorist organization’s leaders. We hit its anti-tank units, its arsenals, and rocket production facilities.”
“We say to the terrorists and those who send them. We see you everywhere. You can’t hide, and we choose the place and time to strike you,” he added.
Meanwhile, according to a White House statement, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan talked with Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi on May 10 to address the ongoing violence in Gaza.
Sullivan "reaffirmed the Administration's ironclad support for Israel's security, as well as its right to defend its people from indiscriminate rocket attacks," according to the statement.
"Sullivan also noted continued regional efforts to broker a ceasefire, and emphasized the need to deescalate tensions and prevent further loss of life," the statement read.
