Islamic Jihad says war with Israel coming this summer
Leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group believes the recent deadly flare-up between Israel and Gaza militants was a “military exercise” ahead of a large-scale war in the coming summer, according to a report in Beirut-based pan-Arab TV channel Al-Mayadeen Tuesday.
In the latest round of cross-border fighting, which erupted over the weekend, Palestinian militants fired more than 700 rockets into Israel, killing four Israeli civilians, the first Israeli fatalities from rocket fire since the 50-day war in 2014, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge. On Monday, an Egypt-mediated ceasefire was reached between Palestinian factions and Israeli officials.
“I anticipate a war to erupt in the summer, following Israel’s attempts to disarm the Palestinian factions in Gaza,” the terror group’s leader Ziad al-Nakhala said in an interview to Al-Mayadeen, adding the ceasefire was reached “just hours” before the militants in the Hamas-ruled enclave planned to launch rockets at Tel Aviv.
Nakhala also said the IDF’s recently adopted policy of bombing multi-storey buildings and homes of factions’ leaders in the Strip, would not remain unanswered.
He claimed that Israel’s promise to implement the understandings reached in an earlier ceasefire deal from March (which include lifting of the Gaza blockade) is what convinced the terror groups to hold fire.
Read More: Ynet News
