Top IDF official: ‘We eliminated all Islamic Jihad leaders in Gaza’

IDF official says. ‘We will not stop until the PIJ stops threatening us, and we will complete the tasks.’

Israel National News

Major-General Oded Basiuk, head of the IDF’s Operations Department, on Saturday evening explained why Israel began Operation Breaking Dawn in Gaza.

Speaking to reporters, Basiuk said, “The IDF and security forces for the past two days have begun a focused operation against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) organization. This organization tried to carry out – against Israeli civilians in the south and in the Gaza border area, and against soldiers – a lethal terror attack with anti-tank missiles, and to kill civilians or soldiers.”

“In light of this, in the past few days, we closed some of the roads near the Gaza border, and we also appreciate the complaints of the civilians on this matter, and the understanding, certainly now after everyone understands what we did. We gathered intelligence, we clarified it, we gave the initiative, and two days ago, within a few minutes, we hit and eliminated the chain of operations of this terror attack, and at their head Khaled Mansour, commander of the northern region of the PIJ’s military department.

“This is an important elimination, and I can tell you that in the past few hours we carried out an additional elimination, of the southern region commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. It’s a very important elimination, that according to all the data I have – I cannot say for certain but according to all the data I have at this moment, we hit him and he was eliminated, together with others. And essentially, all of the top security officials of the PIJ military wing in the Gaza Strip have been eliminated.”

Basiuk stressed, “In the past few hours, we were able to see another very important phenomenon, that it is important to know about. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization, in the past few hours, has fired hundreds of rockets towards Israel, towards the southern cities, and a not-insignificant portion of them fall within the Gaza Strip, and hurt citizens of Gaza itself.”

“We could see in the past few hours, around 9pm, a rocket which hit a home in Jabalia, with Palestinian victims. According to all the data I have, according to the systems and according to the intelligence, the best I can say now, I see and can understand that this hit is a self-hit, that the PIJ organization fired itself and hit Palestinians.

“This organization does not just endanger the lives of Israelis – and that we will not allow – it also hurts Palestinians,” he emphasized.

“We are in a focused operation. This operation will continue another few days, and I ask all citizens of the country to follow instructions, and to understand for a moment that these instructions are lifesaving. We will continue and act against PIJ in any place we need to, for however long we need to, in order to hurt it and not allow it to threaten us.

“In addition, I will say this: We are acting both in Gaza, and in Judea and Samaria, and maybe in other places as well. We will not stop until the PIJ stops threatening us, and we will complete the tasks.”

Concluding his remarks, Basiuk added, “I thank everyone, the civilians, for their patience. Patience is important, and it could be that there will be additional days, not everything goes smoothly in these operations. Until now the results have been good, and we are obligated to continue.”