GAZA – Israel began its military offensive on the Gaza Strip at dawn on Tuesday with a complex and simultaneous assassination operation, targeting prominent leaders of the Military Council of the Al-Quds Brigades (the military arm of the Islamic Jihad movement), violating a truce reached by mediators on the second of this month, and stopping an escalation following the martyrdom of the captured leader Khader Adnan.

The occupation army announced a surprise military operation called "Protective Arrow", which it launched with a series of raids targeting the homes of 3 leaders in the Al-Quds Brigades: Jihad Ghannam, Khalil Al-Bahtini and Tariq Ezz El-Din, which led to their martyrdom accompanied by their wives and a number of their family members.

Israeli media said 40 warplanes were involved in carrying out the assassination, and carried out air strikes targeting the homes of military commanders and positions belonging to the Jerusalem Brigades. It killed 13 Palestinians and injured about 20 others, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health.

This operation is reminiscent of Israel's first 27-day war on Gaza on December 2008, 23, which began with a surprise attack carried out by dozens of warplanes that launched simultaneous raids on security sites and institutions affiliated with the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

The leaders of the Al-Quds Brigades, Jihad Al-Ghannam, Khalil Al-Bahtini, and Tariq Muhammad Izz Al-Din, who were assassinated by Israeli raids on the #غزة sector at dawn today pic.twitter.com/P3uH1PLyc0

— Al Jazeera (@AJArabic) May 9, 2023

Resistance response

In separate statements, the resistance factions condemned the assassinations as a "heinous crime" and vowed to respond to them, saying that "the blood of the martyrs will not be wasted and the occupation will pay the price for its crime."

The Al-Quds Brigades mourned what it described as its martyrs, senior leaders, and stressed that "the blood of the martyrs will increase our resolve, and we will not leave our positions, and the resistance will continue, God willing."

Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas' political bureau, said, "The enemy has miscalculated and will pay the price for his crime." Resistance alone will determine how it hurts the treacherous enemy."

In what appears to be an indirect response to Israel, which announced through its media that the operation in Gaza does not target Hamas, Haniyeh stressed in his brief statement that "the aggression targets all our people and the resistance is united in confronting it."

While the resistance factions have not yet determined the time and place of response to the assassination, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant announced the implementation of a special plan in areas up to 50 kilometers from Gaza, where gatherings were banned, classes were suspended and trains were suspended, with the recommendation that settlers stay near safe shelters.

The occupation army imposed a tight closure on Gaza by announcing the closure of the Beit Hanoun "Erez" crossings, which are intended for individuals and humanitarian cases, and Kerem Shalom, the only commercial crossing, dedicated to the transport of goods and humanitarian aid.

Assassination Policy

With the assassination, which analysts believe is a response by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the pressure and conditions of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to return to vote in favor of the government, especially the implementation of right-wing policies and the return to the policy of assassinations, Israel has tampered with the established equation since the indirect understandings sponsored by Egypt between the resistance and Israel in 2012, after the assassination of Ahmed Jabari, a prominent leader of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (the military arm of Hamas), which was followed by an 8-day war.

Israel has since frozen its policy of assassinations against political and military leaders of the Palestinian resistance, which saw momentum after the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 until the assassination of Jabari.

Palestinians fear a widespread return to this policy, which has begun to reared its head since the assassination of the commander of the northern region of the Jerusalem Brigades, Bahaa Abu al-Atta, in 2019, and the assassination of senior leader of the brigades, Tayseer al-Jabari, last August, with a surprise bombing of their apartments in Gaza City.

To curb Israel from returning to the policy of assassinations, prominent Palestinian politician Dr. Mustafa Barghouti predicted "a unified response from the joint room of the resistance factions in Gaza," without ruling out that the response will be limited to the Gaza Strip arena alone, and may include other arenas.

Barghouti said – for Al Jazeera Net – that Israel is aware that such a "heinous crime will bring a comprehensive and broad response, based on the experiences of previous wars launched by pre-emptive assassinations of political and military leaders in the Palestinian factions."

Barghouti believes that Netanyahu wants this war, and prepared for it with the assassination and the launch of a simultaneous military operation that he chose in advance, but while he specified the beginning of the war, he does not have an estimate when it will end.

🔴 Urgent| Israel's Channel 13: #نتنياهو directed the resumption of the policy of assassinations after rocket fire from #غزة in the past days pic.twitter.com/XmasEcsc4X

— Al Jazeera Mubasher (@ajmubasher) May 9, 2023

What does Israel want from this operation?

Political analyst and expert in strategic affairs, Dr. Hassan Abdo – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – identified 5 goals for Netanyahu behind the process that began with assassinations, namely:

  • Satisfying the pillars of his coalition of ultra-Orthodox Zionism, as he has no choice but to acquiesce to their conditions to keep the coalition from collapsing.
  • In terms of timing, Netanyahu wants to counter opinion polls that show a significant decline in the popularity of his coalition, in favor of the opposition forces and give them the advantage to win if elections are held today, especially with the torrent of criticism of the decline in Israeli deterrence.
  • Netanyahu also wants to secure the settlement "flag march" scheduled for May 18, and the extreme right insists on passing through the Damascus Gate in occupied Jerusalem, even at the cost of an escalation with the Palestinians, so he wanted to launch a preemptive strike that he believes will isolate Gaza from any possible developments.
  • The fourth goal is related to developments inside prisons following the martyrdom of Sheikh Khader Adnan, and Netanyahu is aware that his file has not been closed with Islamic Jihad, and will have a response to his martyrdom and the continued detention of his body, according to a political analyst close to the movement.
  • The fifth goal is related to Israel's awareness of Gaza's impact on the state of resistance in the West Bank, and the growing performance of resistance groups that have begun to form in cities and camps, and it wants to confront this situation and single it out by neutralizing Gaza and separating the squares from each other.

#عاجل|| Horrific scenes of a storm of raids and intense Zionist bombardment of the southern #غزة Strip now, more than 20 airstrikes.

Oh God, peace, peace. pic.twitter.com/JlCCULy5z1

— Adham Abu Salmiya #غزة 🇵🇸 (@adham922) May 9, 2023

"Great test"

Abdo views these assassinations as the biggest test facing the resistance forces demanding a response that amounts to the scale of the crime and puts an end to Israel's intentions to return to the policy of assassinations. "Israel has submitted to the will of the resistance since 2012 following the assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari, and before him the secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees, Zuhair al-Qaisi, and now wants to change the equation imposed by the resistance with blood," he said.

"The resistance succeeded under understandings sponsored by Egypt during the era of the late Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in restricting the hand of the occupation army, and I do not think that the resistance will allow the assassination to pass, and open the door to a return to this policy," he added.

As for the form of the expected response, Abdo believes that the resistance forces will be careful to take the lead in determining the "zero hour", and that their response will have the effect of reaching large goals on important Israeli occasions, ruling out a quick response, so that Netanyahu loses what he believes he gained from the assassination.

The political analyst does not rule out that the response will now exceed "the geography of Gaza," and said that "Israel struck in Gaza, but it does not know from where the response of the resistance forces will come later."