The situation is tense between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic jihad, called “Al-Quds”, in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says 29 people have died in the Gaza enclave since the outbreak of violence which is also said to have caused “253 injured”.
The Israeli authorities contradict this assessment and assure that Palestinian children were killed on Saturday by a failed rocket attack from Islamic Jihad towards Israel. Since the start of its operation on Friday, Israel has claimed to target sites belonging to this jihad whose fighters and leaders have been killed, according to the Israeli army.
Israeli forces also announced that they had arrested around 40 members of the organization in two days in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by the Jewish state.
The worst confrontation since May 2021
In retaliation, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad said on Sunday it fired rockets towards Jerusalem, shortly after sirens sounded in the area, according to the Israeli army. This is the first time that projectiles have been fired at Jerusalem since the ongoing escalation began.
“Very recurrently, the Israeli army kills a senior politico-military official and behind there is a response. Sometimes it’s the opposite”, analyzes geopolitical scientist Frédéric Encel at the microphone of Europe 1. “Beyond that , we are witnessing something that stems from the total absence of political perspective. Unfortunately, yes, a war today can occur between Israel and Hamas. Especially since the major chancelleries are obviously looking elsewhere, to Ukraine or Taiwan,” he added.
This is the worst confrontation between the Jewish state and armed organizations in Gaza since the May 2021 war which, in 11 days, left 260 dead on the Palestinian side, including combatants, and 14 dead in Israel, including a soldier, according to local authorities. Since 2007, the Jewish state has imposed a blockade on Gaza, a territory of 2.3 million inhabitants, governed by the Islamists of Hamas.