Israel’s army and security forces said they had killed a man in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning in a “successful pinpoint targeting” – the country’s first such assassination of a Gaza-based militant since last November’s ceasefire.
The strike came hours after a separate incident in which a Palestinian man stabbed a Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank, the first such fatal attack involving an Israeli citizen in more than a year.
The Israel Defence Forces and the Israel Security Agency, otherwise known as Shin Bet, said they had killed Haitham Almeshal, 24, a resident of the Shati refugee camp, whom they blamed for a rocket attack on the southern resort town of Eilat on April 17.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, had vowed at the time that the country would “exact a price” for the attack, which caused no injuries.
“Today we struck at one of those involved in the criminal firing of rockets at Eilat,” he said on Tuesday. “I said that we would not ignore this; our action is in continuation of our policy. We will not accept the sporadic firing of rockets from either the Gaza Strip or Sinai. We will act, and are acting, in order to defend Israeli citizens.”
Medical and field sources in Gaza confirmed that Mr Almeshal was assassinated at about 10am by a missile launched by an Israeli drone.
The incident took place north of the Shati camp, also known as the “beach camp”, west of Gaza City. Sources in Gaza said that an associate of Mr Almeshal was injured in the strike as well.
Separately, on Tuesday morning Israeli police said that a Palestinian assailant stabbed Itamar Borovsky, a 32-year-old resident of the Yitzhar settlement who was waiting at at bus stop at Tapuah Junction, in the northern West Bank. Jewish settlers in the area rioted after the stabbing, throwing rocks at a Palestinian school bus and setting fire to fields.
The targeted killing is the first of its kind since Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, agreed the Egyptian-brokered truce that ended Operation Pillar of Defence, Israel’s eight-day conflict with Hamas last November, in which 163 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.
It comes after several recent violations of the ceasefire, in which Gaza-based militants fired missiles at southern Israel, prompting the IDF to retaliate. On Sunday, Israel’s air force struck two sites in Gaza in response to rockets fired at the south of the country.
Hamas described the assassination as an “unjustified escalation” and a “grave violation” of the articles of the ceasefire. “We put responsibility on the occupation government for the consequences of such a deliberate escalation,” Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Islamist group, was quoted as saying on a pro-Hamas website.
The IDF described Mr Almeshal as a “key terror figure”, specialising in weapons and working with different Jihadi Salafi organisations in the Gaza Strip.
“He manufactured, improved and traded different types of ammunition, specialising in rockets and explosive devices, which he sold to terror organisations,” the IDF and Shin Bet said. “He assisted the Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Jerusalem, an organisation consisting of Salafi operatives under the global Jihad, and was involved in extensive terror activity against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel said it was reopening the Erez border crossing with Gaza, the main transit point for people from the territory, and the Kerem Shalom crossing, which handles goods entering and exiting the enclave. It had closed both crossings at the weekend in response to a rocket attack on Saturday from Gaza that prompted its retaliatory strike on Sunday.
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The strike came hours after a separate incident in which a Palestinian man stabbed a Jewish settler in the occupied West Bank, the first such fatal attack involving an Israeli citizen in more than a year.
The Israel Defence Forces and the Israel Security Agency, otherwise known as Shin Bet, said they had killed Haitham Almeshal, 24, a resident of the Shati refugee camp, whom they blamed for a rocket attack on the southern resort town of Eilat on April 17.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, had vowed at the time that the country would “exact a price” for the attack, which caused no injuries.
“Today we struck at one of those involved in the criminal firing of rockets at Eilat,” he said on Tuesday. “I said that we would not ignore this; our action is in continuation of our policy. We will not accept the sporadic firing of rockets from either the Gaza Strip or Sinai. We will act, and are acting, in order to defend Israeli citizens.”
Medical and field sources in Gaza confirmed that Mr Almeshal was assassinated at about 10am by a missile launched by an Israeli drone.
The incident took place north of the Shati camp, also known as the “beach camp”, west of Gaza City. Sources in Gaza said that an associate of Mr Almeshal was injured in the strike as well.
Separately, on Tuesday morning Israeli police said that a Palestinian assailant stabbed Itamar Borovsky, a 32-year-old resident of the Yitzhar settlement who was waiting at at bus stop at Tapuah Junction, in the northern West Bank. Jewish settlers in the area rioted after the stabbing, throwing rocks at a Palestinian school bus and setting fire to fields.
The targeted killing is the first of its kind since Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, agreed the Egyptian-brokered truce that ended Operation Pillar of Defence, Israel’s eight-day conflict with Hamas last November, in which 163 Palestinians and six Israelis were killed.
It comes after several recent violations of the ceasefire, in which Gaza-based militants fired missiles at southern Israel, prompting the IDF to retaliate. On Sunday, Israel’s air force struck two sites in Gaza in response to rockets fired at the south of the country.
Hamas described the assassination as an “unjustified escalation” and a “grave violation” of the articles of the ceasefire. “We put responsibility on the occupation government for the consequences of such a deliberate escalation,” Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Islamist group, was quoted as saying on a pro-Hamas website.
The IDF described Mr Almeshal as a “key terror figure”, specialising in weapons and working with different Jihadi Salafi organisations in the Gaza Strip.
“He manufactured, improved and traded different types of ammunition, specialising in rockets and explosive devices, which he sold to terror organisations,” the IDF and Shin Bet said. “He assisted the Shura Council of the Mujahideen in Jerusalem, an organisation consisting of Salafi operatives under the global Jihad, and was involved in extensive terror activity against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Israel said it was reopening the Erez border crossing with Gaza, the main transit point for people from the territory, and the Kerem Shalom crossing, which handles goods entering and exiting the enclave. It had closed both crossings at the weekend in response to a rocket attack on Saturday from Gaza that prompted its retaliatory strike on Sunday.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013. You may share using our article tools.
Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.