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Hamas military leader Ahmed Jaabari assassinated in IAF airstrike
About bloody time, is all I can say. Hopefully we'll take out a whole lot more of them. Unfortunately, this will be seen not as retaliation for the rockets, but a decent excuse for Hamas to launch more rockets, "in response".
Hamas military leader Ahmed Jaabari assassinated in IAF airstrikeBombing in Gaza City also kills a second man traveling in the car with the head of Hamas’s military wing
By ILAN BEN ZION November 14, 2012, 4:20 pm 4
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The car in which Ahmed Jaabari was traveling when he was assassinated in an IAF airstrike on Wednesday (photo credit: Channel 2 screen capture)
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The Israeli Air Force on Wednesday bombed a car in Gaza City, killing Ahmed Jaabari, the head of Hamas’s armed wing — the equivalent of an army’s chief of staff.
The IDF confirmed the airstrike on Jaabari, and said that it had launched a “widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.”
According to reports, a second man who was in the car with Jaabari was also killed.
Palestinians reported that there had been additional IAF airstrikes in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Jaabari was credited with being one of the leaders of Hamas’s violent putsch to take control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and masterminded the professionalization of the Hamas military.
Israel attempted to kill Jaabari in an airstrike in 2004, but ended up killing his eldest son, his brother, and several cousins instead.
Despite being a stickler for personal security, Jaabari personally escorted captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the 2011 handover to Egyptian authorities, who then released him to Israel. Video footage from the handoff showed the Hamas leader standing behind Shalit.
Several Israeli ministers have hinted in recent days that the government was mulling a resumption of its targeted killings policy following the firing of over 160 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip between Saturday and Tuesday.
Israel has repeatedly stated that it held Hamas responsible for all attacks on its territory from the Gaza Strip, including those carried out by other terror factions.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not abide the ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF is operating, and will operate forcefully against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, which are sustaining heavy blows from the IDF,” the prime minister said. “The world needs to understand that Israel will not sit idly by in the face of attempts to attack us. We are prepared to intensify the response.”
Although the prime minister didn’t mention any specific avenues of action, Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon was more specific. “There’s no doubt that in the past two weeks we’ve been witnessing an escalation, which Hamas is responsible for,” Ya’alon told Israel Radio. “We aren’t going to let this stand. Overnight we acted… and if there will be the need, the IDF will know — with the instruction of the government, of course — what to do to keep exacting such a price that these provocations won’t pay off for them.”
Ya’alon acknowledged that there were no easy solutions to the problem, but suggested that targeted killings of senior terror leaders had in the past brought about extended periods of calm along the Gaza border.
By ILAN BEN ZION November 14, 2012, 4:20 pm 4
[ATTACH=CONFIG]30732[/ATTACH]
The car in which Ahmed Jaabari was traveling when he was assassinated in an IAF airstrike on Wednesday (photo credit: Channel 2 screen capture)
__________________________________________________ _______________________________________________
The Israeli Air Force on Wednesday bombed a car in Gaza City, killing Ahmed Jaabari, the head of Hamas’s armed wing — the equivalent of an army’s chief of staff.
The IDF confirmed the airstrike on Jaabari, and said that it had launched a “widespread campaign on terror sites and operatives in the Gaza Strip, chief among them Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets.”
According to reports, a second man who was in the car with Jaabari was also killed.
Palestinians reported that there had been additional IAF airstrikes in Khan Yunis and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
Jaabari was credited with being one of the leaders of Hamas’s violent putsch to take control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, and masterminded the professionalization of the Hamas military.
Israel attempted to kill Jaabari in an airstrike in 2004, but ended up killing his eldest son, his brother, and several cousins instead.
Despite being a stickler for personal security, Jaabari personally escorted captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the 2011 handover to Egyptian authorities, who then released him to Israel. Video footage from the handoff showed the Hamas leader standing behind Shalit.
Several Israeli ministers have hinted in recent days that the government was mulling a resumption of its targeted killings policy following the firing of over 160 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip between Saturday and Tuesday.
Israel has repeatedly stated that it held Hamas responsible for all attacks on its territory from the Gaza Strip, including those carried out by other terror factions.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not abide the ongoing rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
“The IDF is operating, and will operate forcefully against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, which are sustaining heavy blows from the IDF,” the prime minister said. “The world needs to understand that Israel will not sit idly by in the face of attempts to attack us. We are prepared to intensify the response.”
Although the prime minister didn’t mention any specific avenues of action, Minister of Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya’alon was more specific. “There’s no doubt that in the past two weeks we’ve been witnessing an escalation, which Hamas is responsible for,” Ya’alon told Israel Radio. “We aren’t going to let this stand. Overnight we acted… and if there will be the need, the IDF will know — with the instruction of the government, of course — what to do to keep exacting such a price that these provocations won’t pay off for them.”
Ya’alon acknowledged that there were no easy solutions to the problem, but suggested that targeted killings of senior terror leaders had in the past brought about extended periods of calm along the Gaza border.
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