Israeli military officials said early Thursday that prominent Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ali Ghali had been killed.
A report reveals that the Shin Bet internal security agency and The Israeli Air Force collaborated to carry out the operation that resulted in Ghali’s death by bombing a safe house in Khan Younis. There were two more PIJ members in the flat with him when they were killed.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s official spokesman, described the air strike as “Precise.”
Palestinian media claimed several casualties as a result of the attack, but only the deaths of all three PIJ terrorists.
Media reports show the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has published images and videos documenting its efforts to reduce civilian deaths throughout the operation.
The IDF claims that Ghali commanded the PIJ rocket unit that launched strikes on Israel.
Operation Shield and Arrow also went after Ghali, the second leader of PIJ’s rocket squad. Tareq Izz ed-Din was setting up a rocket-building network in the regions of Samaria and Judea and was killed in the first attack that kicked off the operation.
In a statement, Palestinian Islamic Jihad announced Ghali’s death.
Israeli authorities have previously indicated that they were contemplating an Egyptian cease-fire proposal before the attack. But Hagari stressed that the Palestinian terrorist organizations have to consent to the ceasefire before it would take effect.
Middle East media reports show that Egypt remains cautious about the possibility of a truce after it received a top leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Mohammad al-Hindi, for talks.
Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry told the media that Egypt’s attempts to restore peace and restart the political process had not succeeded.
Shoukry met with his colleagues from Jordan, France, and Germany in Berlin, where he called on the nations supporting peace to act and end the assaults and said Israel must end the unilateral actions aimed at destroying the Palestinian state.
Islamic Jihad seeks a stop to Israeli murders of its leaders as one of the conditions for a ceasefire. Israel disagrees with that.
