Israel eliminated a Gaza terrorist early Sunday morning – using “precision munitions combined with advanced intelligence” – in response to the increasing number of rocket attacks into southern Israel, the IDF announced on Sunday.
The Israeli Air Force successfully target-killed Abdallah Kharti. In recent years, Kharti was involved in several attacks that resulted in the deaths of tens of Israeli civilians.
Born in 1985, Kharti was a key operative in the Popular Resistance Committees affiliated with global Jihad, the Israel Defense Forces stated on its official blog. He “was involved in numerous incidents of rocket fire towards Israel. The IDF operated in order to eliminate an imminent threat to the lives of Israeli civilians.”
Since the beginning of 2014, 33 rockets were launched from Gaza at Israeli territory, the blog added.
“Precision munitions combined with advanced intelligence enables us to strike terrorists like Kharti while they attempt to use Hamas’s Gaza as a haven for their hostilities,” IDF Spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner explained. “Gaza terrorists will not be immune to launch these cross border attacks at Israeli civilians.”
At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday morning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared:
“Our resolute policy against terrorism may be summed up in a single principle: Whoever attacks us or plans to attack us will bear the consequences.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon declared, following the targeted murder of Kharti:
“We will not tolerate the disruption of our citizens’ lives and will act forcefully against anyone who harms or tries to harm Israel. We see Hamas as responsible for what happens in the Gaza Strip, and if it does not know how to impose its authority in this territory, it will also pay the price.”
According to the newly released 2013 annual summary by the Israel Security Agency (Shabak), “in 2013, Gaza terror elements, headed by Hamas and PIJ [Palestine Islamic Jihad], continued efforts to strengthen and build up their forces, particularly the production of medium-to-long-range rockets.
“Much effort was also put into constructing offensive tunnels that run from Gaza to Israel,” the report continues. “Two were discovered and demolished: one near Nir Oz (January 2013), another near Ein Hashlosha (October 2013). As IDF was preparing to demolish the tunnel discovered near Ein Hashlosha, a bomb in the tunnel was set off injuring five IDF soldiers. Four Hamas operatives were killed on the Palestinian side.”
Author: Atara Beck, Staff Writer, United with Israel
Date: Feb. 9, 2014