GAZA -

In another escalation of the aggression, Israeli warplanes assassinated the prominent leader of Saraya Al-Quds, the military arm of the Islamic Jihad movement, Khaled Mansour, in air strikes that targeted a house consisting of several floors in Al-Sha'ot refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The air raids destroyed the house in which the martyr Mansour took shelter, west of the city, and a number of houses adjacent to it above the heads of its residents, causing martyrs and wounded civilians, including a number of children and women.

The extent of the destruction caused by the "sudden" Israeli air strikes after midnight last night and without prior warning - as was often the case - showed the importance of the targeted leader, Khaled Mansour, who was martyred, accompanied by the son of the political leader in the Islamic Jihad, Ahmed Al Mudallal and others.

Israel puts Mansour on its "most wanted" lists, and said that the "qualitative operation" carried out by its planes to liquidate him took place in joint cooperation between the army and the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet).


Who is Khaled Mansour?

  • His name is Khaled Said Mansour, he was born to a family of Palestinian refugees in the city of Rafah in the seventies of the last century.

  • He joined the Islamic Jihad movement with the outbreak of the first Palestinian Intifada in 1987, and was then a student in the preparatory stage. At that time, he participated in its activities by confronting the occupation forces in the streets of the camps and organizing popular demonstrations.

  • He joined the first military formation of the Islamic Jihad during the Stone Uprising, and was known at the time as "Saif al-Islam", before his name changed to the "Islamic Mujahideen Forces" known simply as "Qassem" in the nineties of the last century.

  • The Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 constituted a qualitative leap in the military performance of the Islamic Jihad movement and its military arm, which became known as the "Al-Quds Brigades", and Khaled Mansour played a prominent role in its development.

  • Mansour rose to leadership positions in the Al-Quds Brigades, and effectively contributed to the development of the military infrastructure, in terms of human competence and the arsenal of weapons, especially locally manufactured.

  • During the first years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, he oversaw the execution of guerrilla and martyrdom attacks against the Israeli occupation forces.

  • He survived several Israeli attempts to assassinate him, the most dangerous of which was during the third war on Gaza in 2014.

  • He became part of Israel's "narrow targeting circle" after taking command of the southern region of Saraya al-Quds, and he is one of the main pillars of the Saraya Military Council.

The funeral of the commander of the Northern Front in the Al-Quds Brigades, Taysir Al-Jabari, after his assassination last Friday (French)

Impact and reaction

The assassination of Khaled Mansour constituted "another painful blow" within a few days after the assassination of the commander of the northern region, the martyr Taysir al-Jabari.

The question: What is the impact of the liquidation of these leaders on the Al-Quds Brigades and the performance of the resistance in Gaza?

Islamic Jihad spokesman Tariq Salmi answers that "behind these martyred leaders are other leaders who will carry the flag and continue the path of jihad and resistance."

Salmi said - to Al-Jazeera Net - "The occupation is more important if it thinks that the assassinations of leaders will eliminate the resistance, for our leader is succeeded by a thousand leaders, and everyone is ready to carry the gun and sacrifice and continue the path on the path of the martyrs."

In a peaceful opinion, the confrontation is not over yet, and the resistance has not said its word, and Saraya Al-Quds will continue its way to respond to the crimes of the occupying state, which he said "is suffering from clear confusion at all levels, politically, security and militarily."


decentralized leadership

In turn, the writer and political analyst close to the Islamic Jihad Movement, Hassan Abdo, described the assassination of "wasnen leaders", the size of Al-Jabari and Mansour, as a "painful loss", but "it will not have a significant negative impact on the ability of the Al-Quds Brigades to manage the fire with the occupation."

Abdo told Al Jazeera Net that the Al-Quds Brigades operate under a "decentralized" leadership, and it is not a hierarchical organization in order to be seriously negatively affected by the loss of one or more leaders, while the "Military Council" of the Brigades begins to cover the vacancies of its leadership positions in various regions.

Abdo believes, that Israel - which behind the specific assassinations wants to strike the "leading pyramid of the resistance" - will be surprised by the development of the resistance's performance during the next few hours, and perhaps the Al-Quds Brigades will expand the "circle of fire" and the ranges of missiles it launches in response to the "ugliness of massacres" committed by the forces Occupation targeting residential homes.

He said that the Al-Quds Brigades "manage its military capabilities with political awareness," but he does not rule out that it will have "surprises" by introducing new tools to confront the occupation and not limiting them to "missile bombing."