The Israeli military carried out waves of airstrikes overnight Wednesday, targeting senior Hamas leaders and destroying their homes after several Israeli citizens were killed in rocket barrages towards the center of the country.
Over 850 rockets crossed into Israeli territory after being launched from Gaza, another 200 fell inside the Hamas-run coastal enclave. Several rockets have made direct hits on buildings and cars in Israel, killing five Israelis.
Two of those killed were Khalil Awad, 52, and his daughter Nadin, 16, Arab-Israeli residents of a town near Lod, who were killed after a rocket scored a direct hit on a car in Lod early Wednesday morning.
The rocket struck Lod as the mixed Jewish-Arab city was shaken by violent riots throughout the night and brought the death toll in Israel up to five since the fighting began on Monday. Two women were killed in Ashkelon on Tuesday afternoon and in the evening, another woman was killed by a rocket that struck in Rison Lezion. In Bareket in the Shfela region, two men in their 50s and 60s were lightly injured from glass shards as a result of a rocket that landed on a house, Israeli media reported.
IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman said the barrages towards the center came after the Israeli Air Force targeted senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders, killing them.
More rockets pounded Israel throughout Tuesday night into Wednesday morning with sirens sounding throughout the center of the country and particularly in the South, including Tel Aviv and Beersheba.
In one of the strikes, the IDF said it killed two senior Hamas leaders who were key operatives from Hamas’ military intelligence in a combined operation with the Shin Bet security service. The two men were identified as Hassan Kaugi, the chief of the security department in Hamas military intelligence and his deputy, Wail Issa, the brother of Marwan Issa who is the deputy commander of Hamas’ military wing.
The two were in a high rise building of over 10 stories. Hamas had warned that should Israel target high-rise buildings then they would fire on Tel Aviv, a threat they carried through. According to Palestinian news agency Wafa the residents of the building were warned by the Israeli military to evacuate before it was hit.
The IDF earlier killed three other senior Hamas officials, Bassam Issa, the Gaza Brigade commander, Rafa Salama, the Khan Younis Brigade commander and Mohammed Yazouri, the chief of Hamas intelligence.
The Israeli military also destroyed the homes of three senior Hamas leaders, Bassem Issa, the head of the Gaza City district, Rafa’a Salameh, the head of the Khan Younis district, and Mohammad Yazouri, the head of Hamas’s military intelligence.
The homes were destroyed, Zilberman said, “so when they come back up from their underground bunker they will see they have no home left.”
The Israeli military is continuing to hit Hamas targets, including underground military infrastructure belonging to the terror group. Over 500 targets have been struck in the Strip since Operation Guardians of the Wall began, Zilberman said, adding that there are tens of dead Hamas militants.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 35 people have been killed including 12 children and three woman. Another 233 others have been wounded.
The IDF also overnight began an arrest campaign in the West Bank against Hamas members, Zilberman said. “You know why we are doing that,” he added.
A multi-story building destroyed by the IDF in Gaza on May 12 and said to be the base for Hamas’s intelligence units. (IDF)
“Hamas and Islamic Jihad have paid and will continue to pay,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night. “We are all mourning those killed and praying for those who were injured. We all give our full support to the IDF and Israeli security forces. This campaign will take time.”
Israel has “the right and the obligation to act and will continue to do so,” added Defense Minister Benny Gantz.
The Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility on Wednesday morning for over 100 rockets fired at Tel Aviv and 100 rockets fired at Beersheba. Some 1,000 rockets have been fired into Israel since the beginning of the hostilities on Monday.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel had “ignited fire in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and the flames extended to Gaza, therefore, it is responsible for the consequences.”
Haniyeh said that Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations had been in contact urging calm but that Hamas’s message to Israel was: “If they want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready.”
WarSclerotic 
May 12, 2021 at 7:45 AM
Within few months from the rise of Islamo-leftist entities in the USA, the Middle East has plunged into another era of bloodshed by Islamic terrorists and Jihadists. Biden’s Islamo-leftist agendas and appeasement and empowement policies towards Iranian mullahs and love affair with the murderous Islamism are not conspiracy theories.
The Islamo-leftist strategy of the new administration goes beyond the Levant and the Middle East to cover Caucasus, Central Asia, North Africa, Horn of Africa, Turkistan, Uighuristan, Northern Indian subcontinent and even Balkan.
Israel is the only true defender of the endangered free world. It seems some French patriots and military personnel too have realized the existential threat of Islamo-leftism.
May 13, 2021 at 12:17 PM
The letters posted by former and present French military – directed to Macron and the country at large seem to have been duplicated by former U.S. military. https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-US-Open-Letter-from-Retired-Generals-and-Adm.pdf