Twelve Palestinians, including one five-year-old child, were killed after Israeli air strikes targeted a civilian tower and several locations in the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday and Saturday.
At around 3 p.m. Friday afternoon, calls from the speakers of a mosque in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City asked for help from the local community after an airstrike targeted a man on a motorcycle as he was riding past the mosque.
The man, identified as 24-year-old Yousif Qaddum, was killed, and four other bystanders were injured, including 5-year-old Alaa Qaddum, who was later pronounced dead. The target of the strike that killed Yousif and Alaa was reportedly Alaa’s father, Abdulla Qaddum, a member of the Islamic Jihad movement. He was also injured in the airstrike.
A 23-year-old woman was also killed in the same strike, according to Wafa News Agency.
The airstrike near the mosque was followed by a series of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing 12 people according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. More than 80 people have been injured.
Among the Palestinians killed in the airstrikes on Friday afternoon was Tayseer al-Jabari, a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad movement’s military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades. Al-Jabari was killed when his apartment building in the middle of Gaza City was targeted in an airstrike. Several others were injured in the strike.
Airstrikes were also recorded in the Rafah and Khan Younis areas of the southern Gaza Strip.
Islamic Jihad retaliates
Islamic Jihad said in a statement that they would retaliate by 9 p.m. local time on Friday. At 8:57 p.m., the group began firing rockets into Israel. According to the Al-Quds Brigades, the group fired over 100 rockets towards Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and the areas around Gaza in response to the assassination of al-Jabari.
Israel launched the airstrikes on Gaza in what it called a “special situation” on the “homefront.” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned that Israel would “take action” if the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement did not “back down from its intentions to carry out attacks against the country.”
The airstrikes came days after Israel arrested the most senior Islamic Jihad figure in the occupied West Bank, Bassam al-Saadi, during a deadly raid on the Jenin refugee camp, which killed one Palestinian teenager. Following al-Saadi’s arrest, the Islamic Jihad movement said that it was on “high alert” and would retaliate against Israel, though the movement did not carry out any attacks in the West Bank or from Gaza immediately after al-Saadi’s arrest.
Leading up to Friday’s airstrikes, Israel shut down the Karam Abu Salem commercial crossing, the only entry point for fuel used to power Gaza’s sole power plant.
Islamic Jihad released a statement on Friday saying: “The enemy has begun a war targeting our people, and we all have the duty to defend ourselves and our people, and not to allow the enemy to get away with its actions, which are aimed at undermining the resistance and national steadfastness.”
Civilian casualties
In the streets of Gaza there was an air of fear and chaos, as Palestinians in neighborhoods like Shuja’iyya, and in other areas on the eastern borders of Gaza, prepared to flee their homes as they had done in the previous four wars since 2008.
Rasha Qaddum, the mother of Alaa Qaddum, stood speechless in front of her little daughter’s body outside their home, which stands just 50 meters away from the mosque. Rasha cried as she held her daughter’s lifeless body in her arms, while her family tried to calm her down.
“Why!” she screams out loud, holding her daughter’s bloody clothes. Rasha said that Alaa was on her way to visit her grandmother, and went to find her father to ask for a ride when the airstrike hit.
“Israel could avoid killing children, but Palestinians’ lives do not matter to Israel.”
Ameer Yahia
Full of anger and tears, she said goodbye to her daughter, asking the people around her “why was she killed?” and “what sin did she commit to die covered in blood?” No one could answer her.
Thousands of people participated in the funeral for the first five Palestinians who were killed in the afternoon, including Alaa Qaddum.
“These are the Israeli targets: civilians and kids,” Ameer Yahia, 24, told Mondoweiss, as he marched in the funeral procession. “Israel could avoid killing children, but Palestinians’ lives do not matter to Israel.”
“Killings will not take us down, we will fight back and will hit Israel in the heart, just as it hurt us today,” another attendee said.
Palestinians in Gaza are still recovering from the last large-scale Israeli offensive on Gaza, which lasted for 11 days in May 2021, and resulted in the deaths of at least 261 Palestinians, including 67 children.
Escalations on the horizon
On Friday night the Israeli military said that it was stepping up its offensive on the Gaza Strip, saying it was carrying out “wide-scale” airstrikes. The army claimed it was targeting Islamic Jihad military sites.
The army also said that the majority of the rockets fired from Gaza were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome system, while the rest fell in open areas, causing no injuries. The army also announced that 25,000 reserve troops were being mobilized.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli tanks shelled areas in the northern Gaza Strip, near Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, causing damage to property. No injuries were reported.
Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the rocket fire on Friday night was “just the beginning.”
The Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, said in a statement that it would respond to the Israeli “escalation”, and that “the resistance will defend our people in the Gaza Strip with everything it has, and will continue to respond.”
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank condemned the Israeli assault on Gaza, and called on the international community to intervene. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said in a statement: “Glory to the martyrs, and shame to the occupation that targets our people in its continuous aggression on Gaza.”
Meanwhile, the US government expressed its support for the Israeli strikes, with a White House National Security Council official telling Al Jazeera: “The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorist groups that have taken the lives of innocent civilians in Israel. We are urging all sides to avoid further escalation.”
Egyptian officials were reportedly mediating talks between Islamic Jihad in Gaza and Israel to ensure a ceasefire. Egypt, along with Israel, has upheld a 15-year blockade on the Gaza Strip that has devastated the territory’s economy and plunged much of its 2 million residents into poverty.
Tareq S. Hajjaj
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of Palestinian Writers Union. He studied English Literature at Al-Azhar university in Gaza. He started his career in journalism in 2015 working as news writer/translator at the local newspaper Donia al-Watan. He has reported for Elbadi, Middle East Eye, and Al Monitor. Follow him on Twitter at @Tareqshajjaj.
Yumna Patel
Yumna Patel is the Palestine News Director for Mondoweiss.
This reminds me of “The Killing Fields” in Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge used to revel in such brutality in the late 1970s. The Biden administration is okay with this carnage because the “Palestinians are terrorists,” according to a letter President Biden sent to me dated July 18th; and the Israeli IDF has every right to slaughter Palestinian civilians. The collateral damage is the price to pay when building a just democracy in the Middle East.
By the way, I did receive such a letter from President Biden.
When Russia does this in Ukraine, we have no problem calling it a war crime.
The link in the article to Human Rights Watch is worth reading –
https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/06/14/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15
Since 2007, Israeli authorities have, with narrow exceptions, banned Palestinians from leaving through Erez, the passenger crossing from Gaza into Israel, through which they can reach the West Bank and travel abroad via Jordan. Israel also prevents Palestinian authorities from operating an airport or seaport in Gaza. Israeli authorities also sharply restrict the entry and exit of goods….Israel’s Obligations to Gaza under International Law:…Because of the continuing controls Israel exercises over the lives and welfare of Gaza’s inhabitants, Israel remains an occupying power under international humanitarian law, despite withdrawing its military forces and settlements from the territory in 2005. Both the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the guardians of international humanitarian law, have reached this determination. As the occupying power, Israel remains bound to provide residents of Gaza the rights and protections afforded to them by the law of occupation.