Overnight, in a spectacularly precise strike, the Israel Defense Forces killed the head of the rocket division of the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, Ali Hassan Raleigh. Despite this, throughout the night no rockets had been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, and only at 08:22 AM did the shooting begin when the sirens were heard for the first time in eight hours. About an hour after the sirens this morning, the Palestinians reported an IDF attack in the northern Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, the cease-fire negotiations continued all night, even after the impressive strike that took out the apartment of Hassan Raliegh, but left the rest of the building intact, including the support beams of his home (see below).
At 09:04 AM another siren was sounded, in Kibbutz Nirim in the Eshkol Regional Council. The council updated that hits were detected in open areas and not in the villages themselves, and there were no casualties and no damage was caused. The Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon reported that since the beginning of the operation, 25 injured have been brought in, of which ten are PTSD victims and 15 were lightly injured.
Follow-up on last night's targeted killing in Hamad City.
— Imshin (@imshin) May 11, 2023
See how carefully the apartment was hit. Structural damage is minimal, the interior support columns were unharmed. https://t.co/DP5G0kJ4Vv pic.twitter.com/SzAzHufiS7
The IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Danny Hagari, said Thursday morning that the Jihad launched 507 rockets at Israel from Wednesday afternoon until last night at 11:55 PM and about a quarter of them, 110, fell in the Gaza Strip. As a result of one of the failed launches, 16-year-old Rami Shadi Hamdan was killed, and 51-year-old Ahmed Muhammad El-Shabaki. In addition, Lin Belal Abd al-Salam Loh, 10, and Wizen Juda Aliyan, 16, were killed as a result of a failed shot by the Jihad in Gaza City.
The Islamic Jihad noted Thursday morning that "eliminating the head of the rocket division will not stop our missiles. We are able to expand the circle of fire." According to Brigadier General Hagari, 154 of the rockets fired by the Islamic Jihad were intercepted, and the success rate of the Iron Dome stands at 96%.
Footage of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades Firing Rocket Barrages at Israel #Gaza #Israel #Islamic_Jihad pic.twitter.com/wEuEhIObik
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) May 11, 2023
In response to the question of where the ceasefire stands, a senior Israeli official said that "right now there is only fire." According to him, "Everyone's interest is to finish this. But the jihad is in a state of such great humiliation that they find it difficult to come to terms with zero achievements and zero Israeli casualties."
According to the reports, the ceasefire was supposed to take effect at midnight but it did not happen, and the IDF killed the head of the Islamic Jihad's rocket division around 01:30 AM. Along with the head of the Jihad's rocket division, his brother, Mahmoud was also killed, and another terrorist from the Jihad, Muhammad Abd Al-Jawad.
