An Israeli air strike on Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip has killed the head of the rocket unit in the Islamic Jihad group. Ali Ghali was known as a senior figure in the movement’s military council who had survived a previous attempt on his life by Israeli forces.

Jerusalem

Islamic jihad commander killed in Israeli raid

An Israeli airstrike on Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip has killed the head of the rocket unit in the Islamic Jihad group. In a statement, the group confirmed its commander, Ali Hassan Ghali, was assassinated in the strike. Ghali was a member of the military council and head of the rocket unit in the Al-Quds Brigades. So far, Israel has killed four Islamic Jihad commanders in the last 72 hours. Well, the airstrike hit a residential apartment in the Khan Yunis neighborhood at dawn. Two other people were also killed in the same attack. In recent days, Israel has launched multiple airstrikes on Gaza, targeting a number of Islamic Jihad members. At least 24 people have been killed and dozens injured. Islamic Jihad has fired more than 400 rockets from Gaza towards Israel, with some traveling as far as Tel Aviv. Let's speak now to Issam Adwan, who's in Gaza City, for us. Issam, sir, reports an Israeli airstrike has killed the head of the Islamic Jihad rocket launching unit. What can you tell us at the moment? To sum up what happened from last night, it has been a long night filled with tension and fear, particularly started with the Egyptian outlets talking about a mediation between Israel and Gaza, about a truce implemented in a positive atmosphere. But those talks have not come to any sense, particularly after 36 hours of cautious silence. Israel targeted again residential buildings, altering the Islamic Jihad to state that if Israel continues the policy of targeting residential buildings, then they will go on a wider scale of shooting rockets at the Israeli cities. And then, later after, there were a heavy exchange of fire from Gaza launching rockets, and Israeli targeting multiple cities in the Gaza, particularly the city of Khan Yunis, later in the last couple of hours assassinating one of the Islamic Jihad, Ali Hassan Ghali, who has been known as the head of the rockets launching unit, and also one of the commanders, the high commanders of the military council of the Islamic Jihad, the right wing of the Islamic Jihad, al-Quds Bridge. This is altering in so many different ways, as the Islamic Jihad stated before, that the dilemma of this truce talks in particular, and the issue of reaching a positive atmosphere with regards of peace talks, is the dilemma of the policy of assassination with which Israel has been practicing over the last decades, and it's seemingly that Israel is not ready to let go of this policy. Issam, let me ask you, do you think the death of this rocket launching commander from Islamic Jihad is likely to cause a further escalation in the violence? Are things likely to get worse now, do you think? The first assumptions of this assassination is assumed that the Israeli government is pressuring the Islamic Jihad to surrender for the terms, or for the talks approached by the Egyptian mediators, along with Qatar and the US administration, to pressure them to accept the truce talks by the mediators, but of course, with the Islamic Jihad being put in such a difficult position, assassinating four commanders in three days, two days, and here we are in the morning that was supposed to be a positive news with regards to those truce talks, with another assassination of a high commander of the Islamic Jihad, we believe this is an altering situation. The Islamic Jihad has not commented since the assassination, but to mourn the killing of their senior commander. There were no shooting of rockets, it's been like cautious silence that could, in a way or another, alter more rounds of violence in the coming hours. We still don't know what the future holds for us. All right, Issam Adwan there live for us in Gaza City. Issam, thank you.

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