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WORLD NEWS Wednesday 13 november 2019

Israeli airstrike kills Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza home

By FARES AKRAM Strip's boundary and all the
ARON HELLER way to Tel Aviv, about 90 ki-
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) lometers (56 miles) north of
— A pair of Israeli airstrikes Gaza.
targeted senior Islamic Ji- Islamic Jihad often carries
had commanders in Gaza out attacks independent of
and in Syria early on Tues- Hamas, the larger militant
day, escalating Israel's con- group that controls Gaza.
frontation with Iran across Conricus described Abu el-
the region and threatening Atta as a powerful figure in
to unleash another devas- Gaza who often acts alone
tating round of cross-bor- without instruction from
der violence with Palestin- Tehran or Hamas.
ian militants. Israel had no further plans
In eastern Gaza, the Israeli to resume its assassina-
strike killed Bahaa Abu el- tions of militant leaders —
Atta and his wife, setting off a practice that in the past
a furious barrage of rocket has triggered heavy fight-
attacks reaching as far as ing. "There was no other
the Tel Aviv heartland as choice," Conricus said.
Islamic Jihad vowed further In Damascus, a military of-
revenge. The Israeli mili- ficial said Israeli warplanes
tary says Abu el-Atta was fired three missiles toward
the mastermind of recent the Syrian capital, with one
attacks against it, and re- being destroyed by Syria's
sponsible for most of the Palestinians check the damage of a house targeted by Israeli missile strikes in Gaza City, Tues- air defenses before reach-
rocket, sniper and drone day, Nov. 12, 2019. ing its target.
fire from the region. Associated Press The two others struck the
Meanwhile, Syrian state home of al-Ajouri in the
media said an Israeli air- an emergency meeting to week have been waiting The militant group said Abu Mezzeh neighborhood, the
strike in the capital, Da- discuss further action in Tel for the opportune moment el-Atta, 42, was undergo- official said. Al-Ajouri's son
mascus, targeted another Aviv. to conduct this surgical ing "a heroic act" when he Muath was killed, along with
Islamic Jihad commander, The airstrikes come at a strike," he said. was assassinated. It did not his granddaughter Batoul.
Akram al-Ajouri, who was tenuous time politically for Conricus added that the elaborate, but vowed re- A second man identified
not harmed. Israel, as Prime Minister Ben- airstrike had been carried venge. as Abdullah Yousef Hassan
The Israeli military had no jamin Netanyahu leads a out with a warplane that Minutes after the Iran- was killed and nine civilians
comment on the strike in caretaker government af- destroyed only the floor of backed group confirmed wounded, the unidentified
Damascus. Syria's state-run ter two inconclusive elec- the building where Abu el- the death, barrages of official said according to
news agency said Israeli tions. His chief challenger, Atta was hiding in order to rockets could be heard Syrian state-media.
warplanes fired three mis- former military chief Benny minimize "collateral dam- fired toward Israel. Air raid An Associated Press report-
siles at al-Ajouri's home, Gantz, is currently trying to age." sirens continued to go off er at the scene said the at-
killing his son and grand- build a coalition govern- The airstrike damaged the throughout the morning, in tack destroyed the three-
daughter. ment of his own. half of the second and most rapid succession, as far as story building in Damascus,
The sudden surge in vio- Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, of the third floor of a house Tel Aviv. located on a main highway
lence looked to awaken a military spokesman, told in the Shejaeya neighbor- Israel also shut down cross- about 50 meters (yards)
Israel's increasingly open reporters that Abu el-Atta hood, in the eastern part of ing points into Gaza and across from the Lebanese
conflict with Iran and its was a "ticking time bomb," Gaza City. The house was reduced the permissible Embassy. The building was
proxies in the region. The saying he had been respon- known to be Abu el-Atta's fishing area off the terri- blackened, its windows
Israeli government has sible for a number of recent home. His relatives and the tory's coast to 6 nautical blown out. Civil defense
been criticized by southern rocket attacks on southern Islamic Jihad said the wom- miles in anticipation of a workers were at the scene,
border residents for its rela- Israel and claimed that he an killed in the strike was looming confrontation and lifting debris and tending
tive inaction in response was actively planning new Abu el-Atta's wife and the schools were canceled in to electricity cables. Power
to recent militant attacks. attacks. two wounded were their Israeli communities and had gone off in the neigh-
The Cabinet was holding "We essentially over the last children. towns along the Gaza borhood from the attack.q