In Gaza, on November 11, having endured many attacks on its civilians by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Israel struck at the terror group with pinpoint accuracy, firing a missile at a particular room on the third floor of a residential building, which turned out to be the very bedroom of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander in northern Gaza, Baha Abu al-Ata, killing only him and his wife. Confirming his death, a PIJ spokesman said he was just about to undertake “a heroic jihadist action.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Abu al-Ata an “arch-terrorist” and said he was “the main instigator of terrorism from the Gaza Strip. He initiated, planned and carried out many terrorist attacks. He fired hundreds of rockets at communities in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, whose suffering we have seen,” he told a news conference in Tel Aviv. “He was in the midst of planning additional attacks in the immediate short term. He was a ticking bomb.”
The PIJ is the second-largest terrorist group in Gaza, and also has offices abroad in Damascus, Tehran, and Khartoum. It is even more extreme than its rival Hamas, in that – unlike Hamas — it refuses even to consider a ceasefire, and it has recently been firing hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, always into civilian areas, in its determination to prevent a shaky ceasefire between Hamas and Israel from taking hold. Israel has previously held Hamas accountable for attacks by the PIJ, and would attack Hamas targets in retaliation for PIJ rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities. The idea was to inflict so much pain on Hamas that it would then target PIJ in Gaza itself, to prevent its attacking Israel. But now, with the killing of Baba Anu al-Ata, Israel appears to have concluded that Hamas has been not unwilling but, rather, unable to halt PIJ attacks on Israel, so the IDF will have to do the job itself. The Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt Gen Aviv Kochavi, said that Abu al-Ata had undermined recent efforts to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which runs Gaza and is considered a rival to PIJ.
An hour after the Israelis announced the attack on Abu al-Ata in northern Gaza, an Israeli plane fired two rockets at the house of Akram al-Ajouri, a senior member of the terror group PIJ, in the Mezzeh area of Damascus. Al-Ajouri managed to survive, but his son and Ajouri’s bodyguard were killed.
What do these attacks signify? First, that Israel wants to do its utmost to ensure that no innocents are harmed. In both cases, the rockets struck with pinpoint accuracy. In Gaza, not only did the IDF manage to limit the attack to Abu al-Ata’s apartment on the third floor, but, with even greater accuracy, to the very bedroom where he and his wife were sleeping. In Damascus, a similar surgical strike on the home of Al-Ajouri killed only his son and his bodyguard. Many hours later, the Syrians claimed that Al-Ajouri’s granddaughter had also been killed; it’s unclear if this is true, or if it was fabricated in an attempt to elicit more anger against Israel.
Compare these Israeli strikes to how the PIJ struck back. In just the six hours after the killing of Abu al-Ata, PIJ fired more than 170 rockets into civilian areas of Israel. Workplaces and schools were shut down as far north as Tel Aviv. There was no attempt by PIJ to hit a particular target, no “pinpoint accuracy” to these attacks; every Israeli in southern and central Israel was a potential target, including those in the country’s hub, Tel Aviv. Half the country closed down, including schools and workplaces from Tel Aviv south; with sirens intermittently sounding, and people taking cover on the streets or in one of the many bomb shelters that Israelis have built everywhere in their permanently imperiled country
Israel has now retaliated, in turn, for those PIJ rocket attacks. It did not do so right away, holding its fire for six hours, possibly in the hope that after the targeted killings, and having vented its anger with its volley of rockets, the PIJ might rethink its strategy. But it was not to be: and so, with 160 rockets having been fired at Israel, the IAF finally struck back, only at strictly military targets of the PIJ. The IAF hit arms warehouses, a training center for Islamic Jihad’s naval force, a shaft of a PIJ terror tunnel in northern Gaza, and a digging site of another PIJ terror tunnel in the central Strip. Only five people have been reported killed in those attacks, all of them PIJ terrorists. Here, again, in Gaza, the IAF has shown itself to be exceedingly accurate, with no civilian deaths among the Palestinians reported so far.
Israel, meanwhile, has also been careful not to hit a single target belonging to Hamas. Israelis have rethought their previous strategy of holding Hamas responsible for attacks by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and attacking it after enduring attacks by PIJ. Israeli commanders have become convinced that Hamas is trying, but not succeeding, in preventing PIJ from launching its rockets. So Israel briefly decided to return – but has made clear it is doing so only temporarily — to its former policy of “targeted assassinations,” that it used to employ with such effect against Hamas. The IDF is trying to deal forcefully and quickly with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, by cutting off the “head of the snake” – that is, killing its military commander in Gaza, Baha Abu al-Ata, and, in Damascus, the head of its political wing, Akram Al-Ajouri. It wants to weaken Palestinian Jihad, perhaps enough to encourage Hamas to finish the job the IAF has begun, and to return to trying to keep alive the tentative ceasefire that Egypt has been brokering between Israel and Hamas.
As the battle goes on, and both sides have already been “urged to exercise restraint” by the U.N., note that “restraint” is exactly what Israel has always been exercising, in these surgical strikes against PIJ leaders and military targets. It is the PIJ that has never exercised “restraint” in its attacks on Israelis, consistently shooting its rockets into Israeli civilian areas. If it has not caused more civilian casualties, it’s not for want of trying.
The remaining leadership of PIJ remains defiant, and issued a statement promising that “Our inevitable retaliation will rock the Zionist entity.” So far that “inevitable retaliation” has not led to any Israeli deaths, but only to fewer than a dozen wounded. This low number testifies to the efficacy of the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system, the country’s excellent warning system, and the shelters that are found everywhere in Israel.
Hamas, the Palestinian organization that administers the Gaza Strip, said Israel “bears full responsibility for all consequences of this escalation,” and promised Abu al-Ata’s death “will not go unpunished.” This is the minimum that could be expected from Hamas, which though secretly pleased at the damage done to its rival, must pretend to be outraged by Israel’s attacks. It is noticeable that Hamas did not fire any retaliatory rockets itself, nor did it state that it would participate in “punishing” Israel. If Abu al-Ata’s death “will not go unpunished,” apparently Hamas will not be among those doing the punishing. Hamas could have said that “we will help punish Israel for its murder of Abu al-Ata,” but did not. That’s a significant public breach between Hamas and PIJ. How long Hamas will wait, until itself taking on the much-weakened PIJ, in order to assure itself that the ceasefire with Israel will hold, is anyone’s guess. The Israelis hope it is soon. They would themselves re-enter Gaza, to crush all the terrorists, what they call “mowing the lawn,” only most reluctantly. Hamas cannot afford to behave like PIJ, oblivious to the consequences of its acts, and willing to endlessly attack Israel even if the IDF’s retaliation is always more punishing than anything the PIJ can inflict. For Hamas is now more than a terrorist group; it bears all the responsibilities of rule in Gaza. And that includes trying to maintain the ceasefire with Israel, brokered by Egypt, for as long as it serves its interests.
Why do Israelis call these actions taken against the terrorists “mowing the lawn”? It’s because they know it is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem. The terrorists may be cut down, but will always reappear, like a lawn that regrows after being mowed. The Jihad, the Israelis know, is permanent. It’s been going on, somewhere in the world, for the past 1,400 years. If only the people in the chanceries of the West, so quick to round on Israel for daring to defend itself, could grasp that simple fact.
Jake says
One more dead Islamic Nazi terrorist – excellent news. Good job Israel.
toomanyhobbies says
well it would appear they poked the bear one too many times. 😉
Leslie Fish says
And with “pin-point accuracy”, too. That kind of skill would be very valuable to us. In purely practical terms, the US should side with Israel and help it smash the Jihadis wherever they may be found.
mortimer says
The pinpoint accuracy and ethical concern by the IDF for limiting casualties and damage to property makes the IDF one of the most ethical … if not the most ethical … in the world.
This pinpoint, discriminate attack against a plotting terrorist was the result of superb, accurate military intelligence. Hamas and Fatah should be thinking twice about starting anything.
Why don’t they just run for public office in Israel and change the system from within? That’s what non-barbarians do.
Emilie Green says
“Confirming his death, a PIJ spokesman said he [Baha Abu al-Ata] was just about to undertake “a heroic jihadist action.”
Said heroic jihadist action was probably giving his wife her daily Surah 4:34 beating.
Infidel says
I’m surprised to hear that PIJ has a presence in Gaza. I thought that Hamas had an ironclad grip on that territory. Also never thought I’d see the day when Hamas would be considered moderate compared to anyone, although they have seemed such vis a vis al Qaeda or ISIS.
Also, I thought that when the Syrian civil war started, Hamas decided to throw its lot w/ the ‘rebels’ and withdrew its presence in Damascus. Is the PIJ a Shi’ite organization? B’cos it was hard to find any Sunnis that threw their lot w/ Assad, and I don’t expect that to have changed just b’cos he won the civil war
Jake says
Islam always moves to more Islam. Why? Because inevitably a society completely based on Islam fails miserably. But their religion tells them a society built on Islam is superior and cannot fail. So the problem must be – it must be – not enough Islam and the solution must be, always must be – more Islam. Once a society goes Islamic, it is a spiral downward that never ends, unless a secular dictator kills enough people to make it end and keep things under control.
Savvy Kafir says
That sounds about right. And it’s another excellent reason why we need to rid the West of Muslims, before any Western nations reach the point of no return.
gravenimage says
Good analysis, Jake.
RichardL says
I studied terrorism in the early 1990s and one of the assistant’s to Paul Wilkinson had a theory that every terrorist group will always be replaced by a more radical one. Her example was PLO-Hamas and her prediction is that Hamas will be replaced. It just takes longer because being more extreme than Hamas is difficult and being more extreme than IJ and IS will be even more difficult. I am sure they will succeed though
jewdog says
Since this posting many more rockets have been fired. The PIJ is basically an arm of the Mullahs and so is unpopular with the Sunnis.
cornelius says
A fairly sanguine analysis of Hamas’ disposition and intentions. I hope you’re right,
Bella says
It’s disturbing that the mainstream news doesn’t mention how Israel tries not to hit civilians while the terrorists just shoot their rockets anywhere hoping to hit as many civilians as possible. Why would that be.
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Yes, the MSM never mentions that the “knock on the roof” technique was invented by the Israelis in order to give civilians fair warning, when Israel is concerned that a designated target might contain civilians. Since Hamas and PIJ and Hezbollah routinely store weapons, and launch rockets from, near or in the middle of civilian areas, or buildings, including private homes, Israel had to come up with a way to warn those civilians. They usually begin with a telephoned warning, and after that, with the “knock on the roof.”
gravenimage says
Yes–the humanitarian Israelis never get any credit–their actions trying to reduce civilian casualties is taken for granted. Meanwhile, Muslims deliberately target the most vulnerable. Compare and contrast.
Angemon says
Indeed.
Quazgaa says
And this ethical ROE is Israel’s weakness. Kill them in droves for even one single israeli hurt, make them tremble at the very idea of an Israeli attack, destroy the “palestinians” will to fight.
Start there, and the chancelleries of the world will take note, with arabs, fine connoisseurs of all things violent such as they are, among the first to do so. Waste no time with the naysayers, they will badmouth Israel no matter what.
And don’t worry too much about alienating partners, if Israel maintains technological prowess, other partners will be eager to buy her products.
The only wider brush than this is the Samson option.
Quazgaa says
As a post scriptum, of course the little zionist in me is happy with IDF’s professionalism, but patching at it won’t make the problem go away.
Giacomo Latta says
Muslims are the first to admit that it is not a fair fight. If a million muslims and a million Israelis/Jews die in a battle, they, the muslims, win. So let’s have a fair fight:500 muslim lives for one Jewish life. Of course, the MSM will speak of a ”reasonable” response because they like an unfair fight.
Quazgaa says
War is about survival, not fairness.. The ottomans would take Christian children to turn them into soldiers in times when numbers were everything, now the superiority is on Israel’s side.
Let muslims suck on that and live their miserable lives in humiliation.
gravenimage says
The Israeli Air Force “Mows the Lawn” in Gaza
………………..
Glad Israel took out this Jihadist thug.
Simo Hayha says
Sadly, it is akin to arresting a drug dealer on a street corner in Chicago. Another IMMEDIATELY take his place. I know that if IDF decided to WIN this war, and it IS a war, they might research what WE HAD TO DO to WIN World War Two. The Japanese AND the Germans attacked us with horrifying savagery, killing thousands intentionally, indiscriminately. Gee, does THAT seem like what the nice folks of Gaza are doing? WINNING A WAR always requires what “they” euphemistically term “Collateral Damage.”
toomanyhobbies says
well it would appear they poked the bear one too many times. good for Israel
Linde Barrera says
It was true in ancient times and it is still true today: Jews are the civilizers of the world. God bless and protect Israel.