The Associated Press reported on Wednesday afternoon that the Palestinian death toll since Tuesday morning had risen to 18.
By World Israel News Staff
The IDF was acting to preempt additional rocket fire on Israel on Wednesday morning, announcing that the Air Force had attacked members of the Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip as the terrorists were preparing to launch projectiles toward the Jewish State.
In one tweet, the Israeli military said that it had carried out an airstrike against a “number of terrorists” in the northern part of the Strip “who were working on preparing rocket launches.”
Earlier, it posted that one terrorist had been attacked while preparing a rocket-firing.
In both announcements, the IDF identified the terrorists as members of Islamic Jihad and said that direct hits against the terrorists had been “identified” by the Israeli military.
On the Palestinian side, there were conflicting reports on the current death toll in Gaza as Israel continued to respond to what the IDF said were some 220 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel over the course of just over 24 hours since Tuesday morning after an Israeli airstrike killed Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu Al Ata.
Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry, said on Wednesday that two more Palestinians had been killed in an Israeli air raid, according to Al Jazeera.
The Islamic Jihad group said “one of the two killed was a member of its group, identifying him as 38-year-old Khaled Faraj,” said the Arab news outlet, adding that it brought “the overall toll in Gaza to at least 12 Palestinians, including Abu Al Ata and his wife.”
The Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA also reported two more Gazan fatalities on Wednesday but Al Arabiya said that four Palestinians had been killed on Wednesday.
Unofficial reports were continuing to come in of more Israeli air attacks on Gaza, including targeted killings of terrorists trying to get from one location to another via motorcycle.
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday afternoon that the Palestinian death toll since Tuesday morning had risen to 18.
It appears that Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, was “opting out of the fighting for now,” reported Al Jazeera.
In the past, Israel had repeatedly stated that it views Hamas as responsible for attacks from Gaza, no matter which terror group might have been involved. However, in the current round of fighting, the IDF continues to pinpoint Islamic Jihad.