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Palestinian Authority/Gaza, May 11, 2023

Palestinian Islamic Jihad kills Israeli, injures elderly with rocket attack targeting civilians – U.N. Security Council mute on Palestinian war crimes

Original source

The Jerusalem Post

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Gaza terrorists claimed its first Israeli victim Thursday evening, as one person was killed and five others injured when a rocket fired from the Strip slammed into an apartment building in the central town of Rehovot.

The deadly attack, coupled with several other rocket hits in southern Israel, led to combative statements from Israeli officials and pushed off the prospect of an imminent ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad after three days of combat.

The strike in Rehovot was one of several near-simultaneous ones in central and southern Israel that managed to puncture the Iron Dome missile defense system, which has had a 95% interception success rate in. Over 800 rockets have been fired at Israel since Wednesday afternoon, some 600 of which crossed the border.

At 9 p.m., a fresh barrage of rockets was directed at central Israel, with no reports of casualties or damage.

The Rehovot victim was not immediately identified, but police said medics were forced to declare his death almost immediately upon arrival at the scene. He was apparently not inside a protected room when the rocket hit, despite alarm sirens sounding in the city prior to the strike.

Home Front Command chief Rafi Milo, visiting the scene afterward, said the room was being used for storage. “This shows how important it is to follow the instructions of the Home Front Command,” he said.

One projectile fell in the Sdot Hanegev Regional Council, injuring an 82-year-old woman who was struck by shrapnel. According to the Magen David Adom ambulance service, the rocket launched from the Gaza Strip landed outside a home in the municipality. A 90-year-old man was evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba after suffering an anxiety attack.

In the Eshkol Regional Council Council, a foreign agricultural worker was moderately hurt by shrapnel, local authorities said. MDA said the man, in his 30s, was taken to Soroka Medical Center for further treatment.

Three more rockets fell in the southern town of Sderot, with one hitting a public building. There were no reports of injuries, though.

Shrapnel from another rocket landed in the yard of a house in Moshav Ge’a just north of the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of injuries.

Of the five injured in the Rehovot rocket attack, four were in moderate condition and one suffered minor wounds.

Shay Cohen, who was injured in Rehovot, told the Kan public broadcaster that after the attack, he joined others and rescued a family trapped in their home inside the building.

“We rescued an elderly woman, a man in his 40s, and a child about two or three years old, and it was a miracle that they didn’t get hurt,” he said.

The continuing bloodshed has left 29 Palestinians dead and at least 93 more injured. It has been the worst bout of fighting between Israel and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza in months, with at least 10 civilians — mostly women and children — among the dead. Some of the civilians were killed in Israeli strikes, while others are believed to have died as a result of failed Palestinian rocket launches.

‘Meeting fire with fire’

Following the latest barrages, Israel indicated a ceasefire was not imminent, with one senior official accusing Islamic Jihad of torpedoing ceasefire talks and saying Israel will “meet fire with fire.”

“Over the last day, despite Egypt’s efforts to bring about a ceasefire, the Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of fire at Israel. In response, a fourth significant senior official in the Islamic Jihad was targeted, and the organization continued to suffer severe damage,” the senior official said.

The official said Israel will respond harshly to continued rocket fire.

“If the shooting at Israel continues, the strikes on Gaza will continue, including the continuation of the targeted attacks that exact other heavy prices from the Islamic Jihad,” he said. “Fire will be answered by fire.”

On Thursday afternoon, the IDF said it struck an Islamic Jihad attack tunnel that was dug up to Israel’s security barrier with the Gaza Strip.

The IDF said the tunnel was established under the orders of Khaled Mansour, a former commander of the terror group in southern Gaza who was killed in an Israeli strike last August.

The Mujahideen Brigades — a relatively small armed faction in the Gaza Strip that is somewhat allied with the coastal enclave’s rulers, Hamas — said two of its members were killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Gaza City neighborhood of Shuja’iyya.

The terror group said the two members were involved in launching rockets at Israel when they were targeted.

The Hamas-run health ministry said another two were wounded in the strike.