Israel assassinates top Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza strike, militant group vows retaliation

The Israeli military has killed a top commander in Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group based in the Gaza Strip, accusing the militant of carrying out attacks on Israel and planning new ones.

Tel Aviv announced that the commander, Abu Al-Atta, had been killed in an airstrike on a residential building in Gaza’s Shejaia district late on Monday. The strike killed at least one other person, reportedly a woman, and wounded two others, according to Reuters.

“Abu Al-Atta was responsible for most of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s activity in the Gaza Strip and was a ticking bomb,” the IDF said in a statement, adding that Al-Atta had plans to launch “imminent terror attacks through various means.”

Armed groups in Gaza responded with a barrage of rocket fire into Israel soon after the operation, and while no casualties have yet been reported from the strikes, the Israeli police said they closed roadways near the de-facto border with Gaza as a precaution.

Islamic Jihad responded to news in a statement confirming Al-Atta’s fate, hailing the commander for dying in the midst of “heroic jihadist action,” and warning their “inevitable retaliation will rock the Zionist entity.”