Tel Aviv/Gaza, May 11, (dpa/GNA) – Fighting between the Palestinian militant organization Islamic Jihad (IJ), and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), continued in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, despite efforts to reach a ceasefire.
The Israeli army reported the targeted killing of Ali Ghali, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad military council member, and apparent mastermind of the group’s rocket programme.
Palestinian security officials confirmed that Ghali, his brother Mahmoud Ghali and their nephew Mahmoud Mansour, were killed in the drone attack on their residential building in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis.
“Ghali was a central figure in IJ, as well as responsible for the recent rocket barrages launched against Israel,” the IDF tweeted on Thursday morning.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, 28 people were killed and 80 injured since Tuesday, when the renewed escalation of the conflict began. At least 17 of the dead were civilians, according to Palestinian sources.
Meanwhile, an Israeli civilian was killed Thursday evening in a rocket attack on a residential building in the Israeli city of Rehovot near Tel Aviv.
Two other people were injured in the attack by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, Israeli police said. Five people suffered anxiety attacks. Security forces are currently searching the building for other injured people. Rescue workers spoke of a total of eight injured people.
UN Secretary General António Guterres condemned the killing of civilians. He called on Israel to live up to its obligations under international humanitarian law, which included refraining from the excessive use of force, and protecting civilians and civilian infrastructure in armed combat.
Firing rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip also violates international humanitarian law, and endangers the lives of innocent people on both sides, Guterres warned.
Israel’s air force had attacked more than 150 targets in the Gaza Strip in recent days, according to military sources, including weapons production facilities as well as a IJ headquarters from which the group reportedly planned rocket launches in Israel.
In response, Palestinian militants fired more than 500 rockets at Israel, according to the Israeli army. About 360 of them crossed the border. Sirens were again heard in several Israeli cities during the day on Thursday.
Several Egyptian media reported on Wednesday that Egypt, had successfully brokered a ceasefire between the two parties. In addition to Egypt, Qatar and the UN were also reportedly trying to broker a ceasefire. But no agreement has been confirmed.
According to reports, an Egyptian delegation made its way to Israel on Thursday for talks on a truce. Meanwhile, representatives of Islamic Jihad arrived in Cairo for negotiations.
According to the Egyptian foreign minister, previous talks have been unsuccessful.
Germany, France, Egypt and Jordan called for an immediate ceasefire.
“With every new day that people die, there will only be more losers and no winners. Nowhere. The bloodshed must therefore stop now,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Thursday in Berlin after a meeting as part of the so-called Munich process with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, his Jordanian counterpart Aiman al-Safadi and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna.
Al-Safadi called for “a calming down phase of three to six months.” Confidence-building measures should be taken during this period.
The security situation in Israel and the Palestinian territories has long been extremely tense. Clashes between the Israeli military and Palestinians have occurred repeatedly in the West Bank. The army has been conducting regular raids there since a series of recent attacks.
The latest tensions stem from the death of Khader Adnan in early May. The senior member of Islamic Jihad movement died after spending almost three months on hunger strike in an Israeli jail.
GNA