Iran-backed terrorists in Gaza have fired 469 rockets toward Israel as of 9:30 p.m. Israel time, with 107 falling short in Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The barrage reached southern and central Israel, with explosions heard over Beersheba, Tel Aviv, Sderot, and Ashkelon, among other cities. Israel’s air defense systems intercepted 153 of the rockets, the IDF said. Israeli forces responded with renewed airstrikes against Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, including weapons storage sites and an Islamic Jihad military post used to launch mortars. The IDF also reportedly carried out a drone strike against the home of an Islamic Jihad member in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya.
Expert Analysis
“We have two sides here: Israel, a democracy and strong American ally, and Islamic Jihad, a wholly owned subsidiary of Iran designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization. The U.S. can help Israel root out Islamic Jihad’s terror infrastructure by putting pressure on its sponsor in Tehran, its Hamas host in Gaza, and its Palestinian enablers in the West Bank.” — Richard Goldberg, FDD Senior Advisor
“Israel’s goal is to defang Islamic Jihad while keeping Hamas out of the fighting. However, there is no way that Islamic Jihad could fire that many rockets without close coordination with Hamas. If Hamas does not bring the smaller terror organization to heel, the IDF may turn on Hamas. If this happens, there is a good chance of a broader escalation that could spill over to other arenas.” — Enia Krivine, Senior Director of FDD’s Israel Program and National Security Network
“Islamic Jihad is determined to achieve a notable victory in this round of conflict by targeting populated areas with the aim of killing civilians. Yet the Israeli defense establishment has denied Islamic Jihad and its cohorts a PR victory mainly due to proactive defense measures taken against terrorists firing rockets.” — Joe Truzman, Research Analyst at FDD’s Long War Journal
United Nations Security Council (Golden Brown/Shutterstock)
The United Arab Emirates, which signed a peace agreement with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords, cites “concerning developments,” fails to mention rocket terror.
The United Arab Emirates, which signed the Abraham Accords normalization agreement with Israel in 2020, said it requested the meeting due to “concerning developments” in the region, and that France and China supported the move.
In a statement on Wednesday morning, the UAE’s Foreign Ministry said it “condemned the Israeli operation that targeted areas in the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death and injury of numerous people.”
The statement avoided acknowledging the role of the terror groups that recently targeted Israel in the conflict, instead calling on “Israeli authorities to halt escalation and avoid exacerbating tension and instability in the region.”
The closed-door meeting included diplomats from the U.S., Russia, the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Brazil and several other countries discuss their concerns over the conflict.
The Palestinian Authority’s representative to the Security Council, Riyad Mansour, made it clear that he would use the session to slam Israel for the airstrikes.
Israel says it is assessing deal after Egyptian media says fighting to end Wednesday evening, but resumption of rocket fire and IDF airstrikes raise doubts
Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system intercepts rockets launched from Gaza City, on May 10, 2023. (Photo by MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)
Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group are nearing a deal to end over a day of fighting in the Gaza Strip, Egyptian media reported on Wednesday, as large rocket salvos on a wide swath of the country resumed after a brief pause.
Less than an hour after Israel confirmed it was mulling a ceasefire, Gazan fighters let loose with a massive barrage on Israel’s heartland and much of the country’s south, including the city of Beersheba for the first time, ending an hours-long lull. Damage from a rocket strike was reported in Netivot, but there were no reports of injuries.
In another barrage later Wednesday evening, the yard of a home in Sderot was hit, causing no physical injuries. Rockets were also fired toward Ashkelon, where a car and storage unit were hit, also without any injuries caused. A house in Kibbutz Nir Am was struck by a rocket, but its residents were safely inside a bomb shelter.
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As rockets streaked through the sky, Israeli TV stations showed air defense systems intercepting rockets above the skies of Tel Aviv. In the nearby suburb of Ramat Gan, people lay facedown on the ground as they took cover.
The ongoing bombardments were met with Israeli reprisal strikes, despite hopes for a swift end to the fighting.
A short time earlier, Egypt’s Extra News television channel, which has close ties to Egyptian security agencies, said that Cairo had brokered a ceasefire. Egyptian intelligence frequently mediates between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza and has brokered ceasefires in the past.
The Al-Ghad news channel reported that a ceasefire was ready to go into effect by Wednesday evening, citing sources from Palestinian factions.
Israeli government officials confirmed that Egypt was trying to facilitate a ceasefire. Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes diplomacy, they said Israel would evaluate the situation based on actions on the ground, not declarations.
Rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, in Gaza, May 10, 2023. (AP Photo/ Hatem Moussa)
Foreign Minister Eli Cohen confirmed to the Kan public broadcaster that Israel had received a ceasefire proposal from Egypt, and that the government was “assessing it.”
There was no immediate comment from Islamic Jihad, the terror group involved in the latest fighting.
The nighttime barrages saw rockets fired at the southern city of Beersheba for the first time since the beginning of the fighting. In Netivot, shrapnel from an Iron Dome interceptor damaged a home, but caused no injuries. Another missile hit a Beersheba park and reports indicated minor damage to other structures, but no injuries.
Terror groups have launched major barrages before a ceasefire deal goes into effect to gain last-minute achievements.
Earlier Wednesday, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari dismissed reports of negotiations and said the military was focusing its strikes in the Gaza Strip on the terror group.
Gazan terrorists fired 289 rockets at Israel over several hours between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the IDF said earlier, ending a 36-hour wait for a response to Israel’s assassinations of several top Islamic Jihad commanders early Tuesday.
Residents of the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon sit outside a bomb shelter, amid heightened tensions between Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza strip and Israel, on May 10, 2023. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)
Despite the talk of a ceasefire, the IDF extended its emergency orders for communities near Gaza until Friday afternoon. The measures keep schools and kindergartens closed and place limits on public gatherings to less than 10 people in open areas and 100 in protected spaces.
Beaches in the area will remain closed and workplaces are only allowed to operate if workers can reach a bomb shelter in the required amount of time.
Earlier, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant requested to enlarge the area to all communities within 80 kilometers (some 50 miles) of Gaza, as Islamic Jihad terrorists fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.
The IDF said 65 of the projectiles fired by terrorists fell short inside Gaza. Another 62 were shot down, including one rocket fired at Tel Aviv that marked the first successful interception of the David’s Sling medium-range air defense system. The other 61 were downed by Iron Dome, its vaunted short-range cousin, three rockets landed in populated areas and the rest fell harmlessly on open land without causing damage, the IDF said.
Barzilai Medical Center in the southern city of Ashkelon said eight people were injured while running for shelter and another three were treated for nervous shock.
At the same time, the military carried out dozens of air strikes on what it said were Islamic Jihad rocket launchers and other infrastructure. At least 21 people have been killed since Israel launched the surprise offensive on Tuesday morning, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, and another 64 injured. The figure includes both terrorists targeted by Israel and civilians.
Smoke rises after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit near the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon. May 10, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Despite being part of the joint operations center that claimed the rocket salvos, Hamas has not joined the round of fighting, the IDF said, justifying its decision to keep focusing its efforts on Islamic Jihad.
Israeli leaders are thought to prefer that Hamas and its larger, more advanced missile stores remain on the sidelines.
The IDF said that its warplanes and helicopters have hit some 108 targets in the Gaza Strip belonging to Islamic Jihad — mostly rocket launch sites — as of Wednesday afternoon.
Operation Shield and Arrow was launched early Tuesday as the IDF assassinated Khalil Bahtini, who commands Islamic Jihad in northern Gaza, Jihad Ghanem, a top official in the group’s military council, and Tareq Izz ed-Din, who it said directed Islamic Jihad terror activities in the West Bank from a base in Gaza. Ten others were also killed in the coordinated strikes, including women and children, Gaza authorities said.
In a subsequent strike on Tuesday afternoon, members of an Islamic Jihad cell allegedly en route to carrying out an anti-tank guided missile attack on the Gaza border were struck and killed.
Previous strikes on Islamic Jihad leaders have been answered with barrages of rockets on Israeli civilians and intense battles with Israeli troops, some lasting several days.
Also early Wednesday, two members of a local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank were killed in a shootout with IDF forces.
