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On the morning of November 14th, a ceasefire was reached between Islamic Jihad and Israel, brokered by Egypt and the UN.
UN Mideast envoy Nickolay Mladenov said that the “United Nations and Egypt worked hard to prevent the most dangerous escalation in an around Gaza from leading to war. The coming hours and days will be critical. All must show maximum restraint and do their part to prevent bloodshed. The Middle East does not need more wars.”
Approximately 48 hours filled with rocket fire were concluded, with the outcome being that Israel Defense Forces claimed they’ve killed 20 “terrorists”, while Gaza officials say 32 civilians, including 3 children, also died in the Israeli raids, at least 110 were wounded.
The Israeli side reported no casualties, military or otherwise. The Red Shield of David reported that several people were treated for minor injuries, including psychological trauma.
An Israeli official said that Jerusalem has “achieved the objectives of the operation in Gaza, including significantly harming Islamic Jihad, destroying infrastructure, and eliminating over than 20 terrorists.”
Since 4am Tuesday, we targeted terrorists involved in firing rockets at Israeli civilians. We killed 20 terrorists, most of them from Islamic Jihad.
Our mission is to defend the people of Israel.
We will fulfill this mission relentlessly, as these 9 terrorists have learned?? pic.twitter.com/UkLE8RvclR
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2019
Representatives from Islamic Jihad confirmed to Israeli public broadcaster Kan and Al Jazeera that a ceasefire had been reached.
The ceasefire includes that Gaza armed group immediately stop launching rockets, while Israel agreed to not carry out any more targeted assassinations, and would cease to use live ammunitions to target protesters on the Gaza border.
During the 48-hour escalation, over 360 rockets were launched from Gaza towards targets in Israel, the IDF reported, with over 90% of them being intercepted by the Iron Dome.
1 rocket every 7 minutes.
That's how often Islamic Jihad has been firing rockets into Israel since yesterday morning.
Israel’s Iron Dome intercepted over 90% of the rockets before they could reach Israeli homes. pic.twitter.com/pT0Xw4LqgQ
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2019
At the same time, the IDF didn’t provide a specific number of how many raids it carried out, however it said that it targeted Khan Unis HQ, a rocket warhead manufacturing facility, a weapons storage site, as well as a naval commando vessel.
?5:54am – Day starts with more Islamic Jihad rockets
?7:47am – IDF strikes Islamic Jihad rocket squad
?12:13pm – IDF strikes Islamic Jihad terror targets including:
• rocket warhead manufacturing facility
• Khan Unis HQ
• weapons storage site
• naval commando vessel— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 14, 2019
Officials in Gaza, cited by Al Jazeera said that the IDF carried out more than 50 air raids and 21 artillery attacks targeted Palestinian homes, agricultural lands, poultry and vegetable farms, as well as positions belonging to the “resistance.” This data is somewhat outdated, since it’s from mid-day on November 13th and since then the IDF Twitter account has reported the above-mentioned strikes.
The IDF further blamed Islamic Jihad for the civilian casualties that Israeli forces had caused, since they use civilian buildings for weapons storage.
Islamic Jihad manufactures and stores its rockets in homes and apartment buildings in heavily populated areas across Gaza.
Like Abu-Hadayid, who used his home to store rockets. ? (3/3) pic.twitter.com/MUBs3HvExe
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 13, 2019
Israel’s new Defense Minister Naftali Bennett vowed to “hunt down every terrorist.”
“Over the past 24 hours the Jihad Islamic terrorists shot over 250 rockets [an approximate number at around mid-day on November 13th] and missiles on Israelis,” Naftali Bennett said. “Israeli security forces will hunt down every terrorist, until our children are secure and safe,” he added.
The situation as of 9 AM local time on November 14th appears to be calm.
The IDF operated decisively and precisely against Islamic Jihad in Gaza until quiet returned to the skies above Israel.
Quiet will be met with quiet.
We will continue to protect the people of Israel and are prepared for any threat on all fronts.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) November 14, 2019
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But Israeliens are only outnumbered 1:20 :(