Hamas military chief killed in Israeli attack
Ahmad Jabari, the head of Hamas's military wing, has been assassinated in an Israeli air strike on Gaza.
Senior Hamas military commander Ahmed al-Jabari was killed in an Israeli air strike on a car in Gaza City, medics have said.
"The martyr is Ahmed al-Jabari and his bodyguard was injured," Ayman Sahabani, a doctor at Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said.
A Hamas security source also confirmed Jabari's death, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel's Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency and the military also confirmed the operation.
"During a joint operation of the General Security Service (Shin Bet) and the IDF (army) today, Ahmed Jabari, the senior commander of the military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was targeted," a statement from the Shin Bet said.
"In the past hour, the IDF targeted Ahmed Jabari, the head of Hamas's military wing, in the Gaza Strip," the military added in a statement, saying Jabari "was a senior Hamas operative... directly responsible for executing terror attacks."
"The purpose of this operation was to severely impair the command and control chain of the Hamas leadership, as well as its terrorist infrastructure."
Military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said the strike was the start of an operation targeting armed groups in Gaza following multiple rocket attacks on southern Israel.
"The IDF started an operation against terror organisations in Gaza due to the ongoing attacks against Israeli civilians," she said on her Twitter account.
Head of military wing
Jabari is said to have been the head of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. He coordinated much of Hamas' military capability, its military strategy, and the transformation of the military wing.
He also led the final negotiations in Cairo that concluded the prisoner swap between Hamas and Israel in 2011.
The killing of Jabari sparked furious protests in Gaza City, with hundreds of members of Hamas and its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, chanting for revenge inside Shifa hospital.
Outside, armed men fired weapons into the air, and mosques throughout the city called prayers to mourn the commander's death.
Airstrikes
Palestinian security sources and medics confirmed a total of four air strikes across Gaza during the late afternoon, two in Gaza City, one of which killed Jabari, one in northern Gaza, and a fourth in the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Wednesday's attack comes after several days worth of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, leaving at least seven Palestinians dead and several more wounded.
Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba, reporting from the attack site, said, “This is a residential area, and people have rushed to the site as soon as they heard the news.”
Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, said Jabari had been a target for Israel for a long time.
"This is a big loss for Hamas, and a success for Israel, who have been after him for a while." she said.
“We will see an escalation for sure within the immediate future.”
“People in Gaza know him. He was considered very smart, very shrewd, considered to be a hero because he had managed until now to escape numerous assassination attempts by Israel.”
“People will be bracing for more violence, not just against Hamas but against the civilians too.”
Israel defiant
Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned on Tuesday that a flare-up in violence with Gaza was "not over," after Palestinian fighters fired two more rockets and Israel carried out air strikes throughout the previous night.
Barak, meeting Israeli military chiefs, said the current round of confrontations was ongoing, adding that Israel would decide how and when to respond to the rocket fire.
"It is certainly not over and we will decide how and when to act if necessary," he said in remarks communicated by his office.
"We intend to reinforce the deterrence, and strengthen it, so that we are able to operate along the length of the border fence in a way that will ensure the security of all our soldiers who are serving around the Gaza Strip," he said.
"At this time... it is preferable to act [in a timely fashion] rather than just talk."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told community leaders in southern Israel that he would decide when to retaliate.
"Anyone who thinks that he can harm the daily lives of southern residents and not pay a heavy price for it is mistaken," a statement from his office quoted him as saying during a meeting in the city of Beersheba.
"I am responsible for choosing the right time for exacting the most heavy price and that's how it will be."
On Monday night, Israeli planes struck three sites in Gaza, which the military identified as a weapons facility and two rocket launch sites.
And the following morning, the army said fighters fired two rockets into Israel, causing no injuries, with local media reporting one of them was a longer-range Grad rocket, which landed near the coastal town of Ashdod.
In Gaza, medics said 20-year-old Mohammed Ziad, a member of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, died Tuesday of wounds he sustained on Saturday, after the flare-up began when fighters fired at an Israeli army jeep.
That attack injured four soldiers and prompted a quick escalation in violence, with Israel carrying out air strikes and shelling that killed six other Palestinians and injured more than 30.
Gaza fighters fired 123 rockets into southern Israel, lightly injuring four people.
Despite Barak's comments, and a series of bellicose statements from Israeli politicians on Monday, other officials sounded a more cautious tone on Tuesday.
"I don't think it will be necessary to enter the Gaza Strip," former military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told Israel's army radio.
"The army has at its disposal a series of measures that it has not yet used, it can raise the level of its response without resorting to a ground operation."
Source: Al Jazeera
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