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‘We’ll teach Israel a lesson,’ Gaza terror groups pledge

More than a day after senior Islamic Jihad commanders were killed in airstrikes, Hamas officials hinted at a multi-front war on the horizon.

By World Israel News Staff

After Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed three senior Islamic Jihad commanders, along with 10 other people, Israel geared up for a fiery response from terror groups in the coastal enclave.

Schools in Israel’s southern Negev desert communities near the Strip were shuttered, weddings were canceled, and tens of thousands of Israelis hunkered down near their bomb shelters and waited.

Hebrew-language TV news channels fixed their cameras on the skylines of Tel Aviv and Gaza City, with journalists reporting live from the streets of Sderot – just 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) away from the Strip – in a race to be the first outlet to broadcast the inevitable retaliatory rocket fire.

On Wednesday afternoon, after a tense silence of more than a day since the terrorists’ assassination, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups began their rocket barrage towards the south and central Israel, including Tel Aviv.

Despite generally not getting involved in clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad, Hamas said it would support PIJ in reprisal efforts. Hezbollah leaders also made similar statements.

“The response will be unified through the joint military of the resistance factions, and it will teach Israel a great lesson,” a Hamas member told the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is affiliated with Hezbollah. “The responses will not be limited to a certain faction, but all fronts are to participate.”