No rockets on South more than a day after senior Islamic Jihad commanders killed in airstrikes; Hamas officials hint at multi-front war on the horizon.
By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News
After Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed three senior Islamic Jihad commanders, along with 10 other people, Israel geared up for a fiery response from terror groups in the coastal enclave.
Schools in Israel’s southern Negev desert communities near the Strip were shuttered, weddings were canceled, and tens of thousands of Israelis hunkered down near their bomb shelters and waited.
Hebrew-language TV news channels fixed their cameras on the skylines of Tel Aviv and Gaza City, with journalists reporting live from the streets of Sderot – just 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) away from the Strip – in a race to be the first outlet to broadcast the inevitable retaliatory rocket fire.
But more than a day after the strikes, Islamic Jihad and other terror groups in the region have yet to respond, and a tense silence has fallen over the region.
Some analysts have claimed that Islamic Jihad is scrambling to figure out who’s in charge after their top leaders were killed, or suggested that their rocket arsenals were severely damaged in later IAF strikes the same day as the assassinations.
Others, including senior IDF officials, have said that the lengthy response time signals that terror groups may be coordinating a response against multiple fronts. Last month, Israel sustained rocketfire from Lebanon, Syria, and the Strip, with all of the attacks occurring within days of each other.
Despite generally not getting involved in clashes between Israel and Islamic Jihad, Hamas has said it plans to support the terror group in reprisal efforts. Hezbollah leaders also made similar statements.
“The response will be unified through the joint military of the resistance factions, and it will teach Israel a great lesson,” a Hamas member told the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper, which is affiliated with Hezbollah. “The responses will not be limited to a certain faction, but all fronts are to participate.”
Notably, the source hinted that terror groups may save their response for the upcoming Jerusalem Flag March celebration, which is expected to see thousands wave and dance with the Israeli flag throughout the Old City’s Muslim Quarter.
“The leadership of the resistance has put all options on the table, based on the assessment that the enemy started the battle at the time of their choosing, in order to bring the resistance into the campaign under the title ‘reaction to the elimination [of the Palestinian Jihad officials]’ and not about the crimes it intends to carry out in the [Jerusalem Day] Flag March on May 18,” he added.
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