By: Derek Sun

At least six children and a few PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad) fighters are amongst 31 Palestinian individuals killed by Israeli rockets. Nearly 600 missiles and rockets have been shot from Gaza to Israel since Friday. Israel said it has launched operations because of “immediate threats” from the PIJ.

The most recent violence is the most severe clash between Israel and Gaza since an 11-day fight last year that killed more than 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis. The Israeli military is alerting that this most recent operation – identified as “Breaking Dawn” – could last for up to a week.

On Sunday, Palestinian rockets detonated from the Gaza Strip reached the city of Jerusalem for the first time since the 2021 conflict. The attacks came after Israel killed veteran PIJ chief Khaled Mansour in a bombing on a house in the Rafah refugee camp site in southern Gaza.

The commander had previously lived through five murder efforts by the Israeli army, who accused him of organizing rebel attacks out of Gaza. Gaza’s health agency accused “Israeli aggression” for the killings of Palestinians, and for the more than 200 people injured.

Israel accused PIJ fighters of accidentally causing at least some of those fatalities – claiming on Saturday that the PIJ fired a stray rocket killing numerous children in Jabalia, in the Gaza Strip.

The latest conflict follows Israel’s custody of Bassem Saadi, reported to be the head of PIJ in the West Bank, on Monday night. He was kept in the Jenin area as part of a continuing series of arrest procedures after a surge of strikes by Israelis and Palestinians that left 17 Israelis and two Ukrainians dead. Two of the aggressors came from the Jenin area.

The PJI has been accountable for many strikes, including missile fire and killings of innocent Israeli citizens.