Israel said Friday it has completed a series of airstrikes on targets linked to the Islamic Jihad group in Gaza after overnight rocket fire that rattled a day-old truce.
The Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers, who kept to the sidelines of this week’s fighting, cancelled the weekly protests they organize along the perimeter fence without explanation — apparently in an effort to preserve the calm.
Israel reiterated that it was willing to abide by the ceasefire if there are no additional rocket attacks. The army said in a statement that it struck a military compound, a rocket-manufacturing site and a militant headquarters in the town of Khan Younis overnight.
The airstrikes came after a barrage of rockets late Thursday. There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side. The situation was calm on Friday.
The unofficial ceasefire that began early Thursday ended a two-day escalation triggered by Israel’s targeted killing of a Jihad commander.
The fighting killed 34 Palestinians, including 15 civilians. Palestinian gunmen fired more than 450 rockets toward Israel, paralyzing much of southern Israel without causing any deaths or serious injuries.
Late Friday, Hamas said one of its fighters, 22-year-old Ahmed Abdelal, was killed in an Israeli airstrike Wednesday, but did not clarify whether they believed he had been targeted purposefully.
An Israeli airstrike overnight Thursday struck a home in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah, killing eight people, including two women and five children under the age of 13. The airstrike apparently targeted the home of a Jihad commander who was not there at the time.
Neighbors said the airstrike killed his brother, who was not involved in militant activity.
Hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed in previous rounds fighting in Gaza, drawing heavy international criticism, and the International Criminal Court in The Hague has opened a preliminary investigation into Israel’s battlefield tactics.
Israel rejects the criticism, saying it takes numerous precautions to prevent unnecessary civilian casualties. It also accuses Palestinian militants of using civilians as human shields and firing rockets from residential areas. It says militant commanders often have weapons or command centers inside their homes, making them legitimate targets.
Jihad announced the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire early Thursday, claiming it had extracted several concessions from Israel. Israel does not generally comment on informal understandings with militant groups and said only that it would halt fire as long as the militants did the same.
The truce angered many Jihad supporters, who held protests across Gaza. The barrage of rockets fired into Israel late Thursday, which Israel said were intercepted by its missile defenses, may have been an expression of discontent with the militant group’s leadership.
Unlike in previous rounds of violence, Hamas stayed on the sidelines, adhering to understandings reached through Egyptian mediators after previous rounds of fighting with Israel. Both groups are committed to Israel’s destruction, but Jihad is seen as more radical and has closer ties to Iran.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars, the most recent in 2014, and have exchanged fire on a number of occasions since then. In the latest fighting, Israel refrained from targeting Hamas, which does not appear to have fired any rockets, a sign that both want to maintain the calm.
