The Israeli army declared an emergency situation Tuesday 40 kilometers around Gaza given the possibility that the Palestinian militias of the strip will launch rockets in response to the intense shelling this morning, which killed 13 people, including three senior commanders of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (YIP).
For this reason, Israeli civilians in the area surrounding the Palestinian enclave have been instructed to remain in the vicinity of their designated refuge and classes have been suspended in schools throughout the area, which includes the cities of Ashkelon, Ashod and Beersheva, southern Israel.
The emergency situation will be in force for the moment until tomorrow, Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., pending further evaluations, and in the towns of the area, public air-raid shelters have been opened.
(Also: Tension in Gaza after death of Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike).
In Ashkelon and Ashod, on the coast, the beaches have been closed to the public, as well as the access roads; while the Soroka hospital in Beersheba has begun transferring patients to fortified areas. Israel is preparing “for any scenario,” a military spokesman said, which could mean several days of escalating warfare with Palestinian militias in Gaza, such as the one that occurred with the Islamic Jihad in August of last year, or with the JIP and Hamas in May 2021, which caused more than 200 Palestinian deaths and twenty on the Israeli side.
The Israeli Army launched this morning the “Shield and Arrow” operation for the selective assassination of three high commands of the YIP in Gaza, Jalil Baitini, Tareq Az Aldin and Jahed Ahnam, who are responsible for the hundreds of rockets fired from the enclave by the last week in revenge for the death in an Israeli jail, after 86 days on hunger strike, of the Palestinian prisoner Jader Adnán, an important member of that group in the occupied West Bank.
(Of your interest: Israelis protest against controversial statements by Benjamin Netanyahu).
That led to a 24-hour exchange of fire between Israeli troops and militias, ending in an Egyptian-brokered truce. Faced with the possibility of a new escalation, the Minister of Defense, Yoav Galant, gave the green light this morning to the “recruitment of reservists for the required positions in the various formations, according to the needs of the Army“His office reported. Army spokesman Daniel Hagari later clarified that “several hundred” reservists will be called throughout the day, most of them from the Air Force Southern Command, as well as from intelligence units.
The Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings, which allow the passage of people and goods between Israel and the Gaza Strip, will also remain closed for the duration of the emergency situation.
EFE
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