Hamas gives green light for rocket fire but stays out of fighting

Who knows how long it will last? For now, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip says it’s staying out of the current fighting.

By Baruch Yedid, TPS

Hamas gave Palestinian Islamic Jihad a green light to fire a barrage of rockets at Israel on Wednesday.

Sources inside Gaza told the Tazpit Press Service that Hamas is so far staying out of the fighting and is not firing its own rockets at Israel.

A Palestinian source with a connection to the Gaza Coordinating Room, the local headquarters for terrorist groups to plan their strategy, told TPS it was surprising that PIJ had rockets capable of reaching Tel Aviv.

Hamas came under heavy pressure for not joining PIJ in firing rockets in August 2022. During a 55-hour period, terrorists in Gaza launched about 1,000 rockets at Israel in response to the arrest of the group’s leader in Judea and Samaria, Bassem Saadi, on August 1.

That conflict did not win Islamic Jihad broad support. Many in Gaza were angered when 120 rockets were misfired, often landing inside the Strip, and in some cases killing Palestinian civilians.

On Tuesday, Israel launched surprise air strikes on Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets, including killing three of the terror group’s senior figures. Military positions belonging to Islamic Jihad were struck, including a rocket factory and a facilitythat produced concrete components for terror tunnels, the IDF said.

The strikes on the Islamic Jihad leaders come against the backdrop of a rocket barrage fired by the terror group following the death of Khader Adnan on May 2. The imprisoned Adnan, a senior Islamic Jihad figure, died after an 86-day hunger strike. The terror group had threatened throughout Adnan’s hunger strike that it would hold Israel responsible for its member’s death.