UPDATE: The Shin Bet security service identifies four top Hamas commanders who were killed in its joint operation with the Israel Defense Forces, along with two others who were killed in an earlier strike on a Hamas base.
Bassem Issa, the commander of Hamas’s Gaza City Brigade; Jamaa Tahla, the head of its cyber command and responsible for improving the accuracy of the group’s rockets; Jamal Zabeda, the head of research and special projects in its munitions productions department; and Hazzem Hatib, Hamas’s chief engineer in its munitions department were all killed in the strikes, the Shin Bet says.
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Hamas launched a massive barrage of rocket fire on southern and central Israel in the early hours of Wednesday morning, killing a man and his daughter outside Lod and sending hundreds of thousands of people, from Tel Aviv to Beersheba, fleeing to bomb shelters.
Their deaths, and that of a woman in a rocket attack on Rishon Lezion earlier overnight, brought the Israeli death toll to five R”L, since the start of the hostilities on Monday evening.
The IDF and Shin Bet carried out a targeted assassination against senior members of Hamas General Staff who were considered close to the head of Hamas’s military wing, Muhammad Deif. The number of top commanders killed & names are expected to be released shortly.
🇮🇱🇵🇸 — VIDEO: A short while ago, the IDF struck the house of a high-ranking operative in the Hamas terror organization, Salih Dahman, that was used to store weapons for Hamas. pic.twitter.com/ON7KeZ1CS1
— Belaaz (@TheBelaaz) May 12, 2021
BREAKING: The Israeli military has killed multiple top Hamas commanders in several simultaneous airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. Details to follow.
— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) May 12, 2021
The IDF continued early morning to strike terror cells where rocket launchers were located in retaliation to last nights missile attacks:
🇮🇱🇵🇸 — UPDATE: IDF is continuing to strike terror targets in the Gaza Strip. One person was killed and two seriously injured after one Anti-Tank missile was fired from Gaza. pic.twitter.com/lZU54LKJnA
— Belaaz (@TheBelaaz) May 12, 2021
🇮🇱🇵🇸 — WATCH: A really close up video shows the IDF airstrikes in Gaza early this morning.
— Belaaz (@TheBelaaz) May 12, 2021
The IDF says it bombed a Hamas team preparing to launch an armed unmanned aerial vehicle at Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.
“An IDF aircraft struck a UAV-launching cell from the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. The cell was attacked as it was preparing to launch the UAV at Israeli territory,” the IDF says.
צה"ל ממשיך בגל התקיפות, ותקף שני אתרים לייצור אמצעי לחימה של חמאס והג'יהאד האיסלאמי בצפון רצועת עזה
(צילום: דובר צה"ל)@ela1949 @ItayBlumental pic.twitter.com/ubiCnYlEG6— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 12, 2021
One side fires over a thousand rockets into civilian areas hoping to kill anyone, including Israeli Arabs.
The other side delivers phone calls and "knock bombs" to evacuate civilians before destroying Hamas-occupied buildings.
And most of the West pretends moral equivalence.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 12, 2021
Thank you @NYGovCuomo for your friendship and for recognizing Israel’s right to protect its citizens. https://t.co/3hMunbUPVR
— Israel Nitzan🇮🇱 (@IsraelNitzan) May 12, 2021
“Senior Hamas members” is a meaningless statement. Senior Hamas members are like vice-presidents at Goldman Sachs. There’s a million of them.