JERUSALEM — In a shock airstrike earlier than daybreak on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group within the Gaza Strip, setting off waves of retaliatory rocket assaults that instantly raised fears of an escalating new battle.
The timing of the assault, after a interval of relative calm alongside the border and amid a protracted, high-stakes negotiation over who will lead Israel’s next government, led some critics of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cost that it was politically motivated. Mr. Netanyahu insisted that the timing was dictated by Israel’s safety chiefs, whose suggestion he had merely endorsed.
Israel described the Gaza commander, Baha Abu al-Ata, as a “ticking bomb” who was “accountable for a lot of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s exercise within the Gaza Strip.” Islamic Jihad mentioned that the commander’s spouse, Asmaa Abu al-Ata, was additionally killed within the four a.m. missile strike.
Earlier than 6 a.m., militants in Gaza started firing barrages of rockets towards southern and central Israel from the Palestinian coastal enclave. Islamic Jihad known as the Israeli strike “a declaration of struggle towards the Palestinian individuals” and mentioned, “Our response to this crime can have no limits.”
Faculties had been closed within the Tel Aviv metropolitan space as air-raid sirens blared and Iron Dome missiles intercepted dozens of rockets. Tens of hundreds of Israelis took cowl in bomb shelters.
Islamic Jihad additionally blamed Israel for an additional missile assault at daybreak on Tuesday on the Damascus dwelling of Akram al-Ajouri, describing him as a member of the group’s political bureau in Syria.
Mr. al-Ajouri was reported to have survived. Sana, the official Syrian information company, reported {that a} son of Mr. al-Ajouri and one other particular person had been killed. Mr. al-Ajouri is claimed to be the direct superior of Mr. Abu al-Ata. The Israeli army wouldn’t touch upon the Damascus airstrike.
The combating on Tuesday created a clumsy scenario for Hamas, the bigger Islamic militant group that guidelines the Gaza Strip. Whereas Hamas capabilities because the native authorities, with a robust political base, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has fewer followers and no tasks besides to its patrons in Iran, has taken a tougher line towards Israel.
Hamas has tried for months to implement casual cease-fire understandings with Israel — which Palestinian Islamic Jihad has typically disrupted with rogue rocket or sniper assaults — in return for money from Qatar. It now has to resolve whether or not to lift the stakes by becoming a member of the group in avenging Mr. Abu al-Ata’s dying, or to face down in hopes of restoring calm.
Hamas mentioned that it, too, mourned Mr. Abu al-Ata’s dying and that his killing wouldn’t go unpunished, however the group stopped wanting saying it could be part of the combating.
The Israeli army mentioned Mr. Abu al-Ata was responsible for rocket hearth on Nov. 1 and in August, and mentioned he was being intently monitored just lately as a result of he was planning a particular new assault towards Israel.
His title had cropped up steadily within the reporting of Israeli army correspondents — which a military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, mentioned was no accident, and was meant as a warning.
However some Israeli analysts prompt that an incident on Sept. 10, per week earlier than the final Israeli election, could have sealed Mr. Abu al-Ata’s destiny: When Mr. Netanyahu made a marketing campaign cease in Ashdod — at a location introduced upfront, breaking with customary safety precautions — a rocket assault despatched the prime minister and his entourage scurrying offstage to shelter.
Amit Segal, a commentator on Israel’s Channel 12, wrote on Twitter that there had been an “invisible laser marker” on the heads of each Mr. Abu al-Ata and his Damascus superior from that second.
Militant teams in Gaza have clashed with Israel a number of instances lately, with the last deadly conflagration going down over a number of days in Could. A devastating struggle in the summertime of 2014 lasted 50 days and ended with a fragile cease-fire that has since been damaged many instances.
Focused strikes towards militant leaders have led to struggle earlier than, and Israel has sworn them off up to now. In 2012, an Israeli airstrike that killed Ahmed al-Jabari, the Hamas army commander on the time, turned the opening shot of an eight-day struggle.
Colonel Conricus mentioned the assault on Tuesday was timed to attenuate the possibility of different deaths or accidents.
Some 170 rockets had been fired on Israel by early afternoon, of which about 60 had been intercepted by air-defense methods, the army mentioned. A minimum of one man was wounded by shrapnel, officers mentioned, however most casualties had been minor and concerned individuals harm as they raced to shelters or handled for panic or fainting.
As of 5 p.m., well being officers in Gaza put the casualties there at 5 useless, two of them civilians, and 30 wounded.
Israel refrained for a number of hours from further strikes, saying it wished to keep away from an escalation, although it struck what it mentioned had been two Islamic Jihad operatives getting ready to launch a rocket round 11 a.m.
However with rocket launches persevering with, Israel started extra broadly attacking Islamic Jihad targets within the early afternoon, asserting the strikes on Twitter with the hashtag #JiHadEnough.
Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli common and former nationwide safety adviser, mentioned he believed that the Damascus assault was additionally carried out by Israel, and mentioned that Islamic Jihad personnel in Syria had a direct reference to Iran and gave directions to the group’s members in Gaza.
Within the hours after the assault, masked militants of Islamic Jihad surrounded the two-story constructing the place Mr. Abu al-Ata and his spouse had been killed. It’s in Shejaiya, a neighborhood east of Gaza Metropolis that noticed fierce battles in the course of the 2014 struggle.
Mutassem Hilis, 23, a college pupil and a neighbor of the Abu al-Ata household in Shejaiya, mentioned he was woken up by the blast, got here out of his constructing and noticed Mr. Abu al-Ata’s physique on the sidewalk. One among Mr. Abu al-Ata’s younger sons lay injured on the bottom and was later pushed off to the hospital, he mentioned. The physique of Mr. Abu al-Ata’s spouse was present in a college reverse the household home.
Inside Israel, the violence Tuesday occurred in a second of heightened political rigidity, as Mr. Netanyahu fights for his political life. He’s main a caretaker authorities after two elections, in April and September, ended inconclusively. He additionally faces a looming indictment in three graft circumstances, presumably by the top of this month.
Benny Gantz, a centrist former Israeli military chief of employees who defeated Mr. Netanyahu within the September election, now could be searching for to type a authorities and presumably pressure Mr. Netanyahu from energy for the primary time in a decade.
Mr. Gantz and others in his Blue and White social gathering expressed help for the Gaza strike, about which he mentioned he had been briefed upfront. He called it “an accurate choice tonight for the safety of Israel’s residents and the residents of the south.”
However different Netanyahu opponents charged that the Gaza strike was aimed primarily at aiding the prime minister’s bid to remain in energy.
Omer Barlev, a Labor Celebration legislator, mentioned Mr. Abu al-Ata had been within the army’s sights for a very long time, including: “Why did Netanyahu change his place now?”
And the chief of the primarily Arab Joint Checklist, Ayman Odeh, wrote on Twitter: “A cynical man who misplaced two consecutive elections will depart solely scorched earth in a determined try to stay in workplace.”
Tacitly acknowledging the necessity to tackle these allegations, Mr. Netanyahu appeared publicly alongside Israel’s army and internal-security chiefs. He mentioned they’d each beneficial killing Mr. Abu al-Ata, and that his Cupboard had approved it 10 days in the past.
“We tried to forestall his exercise in numerous methods, however with out success,” mentioned Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, the military chief of employees, explaining his suggestion to assault Mr. Abu al-Ata.
In uncommon public remarks, the chief of the Israel Safety Company, Nadav Argaman, mentioned Israel had been monitoring Mr. Abu al-Ata’s actions for days as he moved from protected home to protected home. “He acted like a wished man,” Mr. Argaman mentioned.
With Mr. Gantz operating out of time to type a authorities, in the meantime, the flare-up, and his help for the federal government’s actions, appeared to lift the probability of a unity authorities through which he would be part of forces with Mr. Netanyahu, even perhaps with Mr. Netanyahu remaining prime minister for a restricted interval. The 2 met later Tuesday for what a “safety replace.”
Avi Benayahu, a former military spokesman, wrote on Twitter that Tuesday’s combating amounted to “concentrated baking powder for a nationwide unity authorities.”
“Add within the early tip-off Gantz obtained in regards to the motion and the unreserved help for the operation from Blue and White leaders,” he added, “and you’ve got a superbly baked cake prepared for consuming.”
Isabel Kershner and David M. Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem, and Iyad Abuheweila from Gaza Metropolis. Ibrahim El-Mughraby contributed reporting from Gaza Metropolis.