JERUSALEM — An Israeli airstrike in Gaza has killed the top military commander of Hamas with Israel warning other Hamas members not to "show their faces above ground" in the next few days.
An Israeli missile killed Ahmed al-Jaabari Wednesday as he drove in a car in Gaza City, shattering a tacit cease-fire that lasted less than a day. Israeli news reports say his son was also killed.
Ahmed al-Jaabari
Who is Ahmed al-Jaabari?- Headed Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades
- Most senior Hamas official killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive four years ago
- Was at the top of Israel's most-wanted list
- Israel held him responsible for all attacks from Gaza in the last decade
- Israel blamed him for kidnapping of soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006
The attack was part of a wave of airstrikes against Islamic militants in Gaza which Palestinians say killed seven other people, including two children.
Israel's Shin Bet intelligence service said Jaabari was killed because of his "decade-long terrorist activity," including the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006. He was one of Israel's most wanted men and is the most senior Hamas official to be killed since an Israeli invasion of Gaza four years ago.
A new operation
The Israeli government announced that the killing is the beginning of an operation against Gaza militants. Israel said it will be targeting sites in Gaza where mortars and rockets are stored.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will keep doing everything necessary to protect its citizens, including expanding its operation in Gaza. Hamas militants frequently fire rockets into Israel from Gaza.
Hamas warned Israel that "the occupation has opened the gates of hell." Egypt, which borders Gaza, has recalled its ambassador to Israel and is calling for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
Television footage broadcast by Israel's government station showed Palestinian rescue workers struggling to extinguish flames engulfing a car on a Gaza street. The passenger compartment appeared to have been destroyed by the blast.
Gaza resident Mohammad Dawwas said the situation looks like a "war is starting in Gaza" with multiple air strikes sowing panic, people running home and a prevailing fear settling in.
"Airstrikes are everywhere, especially in Gaza City and the [southern and northern] Gaza Strip. People are running, going home, afraid of being injured, being shot, being hit," he said.
Ceasefire broken
Israel leaders and Palestinian militants in Gaza Tuesday had tacitly agreed to a cease-fire after four days of cross-border bombardments in which seven Gaza Palestinians were killed, and civilians in southern Israel were wounded.
Ceasefire broken
Israeli Air Strike Kills Ahmed al-Jaabari
An Israeli air strike in Gaza has killed the military chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, visiting troops near the Gaza border on Tuesday, issued a strong warning. He said the matter has not ended and that Israel would decide how and when to act.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, visiting wounded at a local hospital, had indicated the armed factions in Gaza would respect the cease-fire if Israel did.
Four days of cross-border rocket assaults and air strikes began Saturday when a rocket fired from Gaza struck an Israeli military vehicle near the border, wounding four soldiers.
Egyptian security officials reportedly had mediated the cease-fire.
Subsequent Israeli air attacks on Gaza killed three Palestinian fighters and four civilians.
Eight Israeli civilians were wounded as militants in Gaza fired more than 100 rockets into southern Israel over the following days.
Some Israeli officials had called for a resumption of assassinations of Hamas leaders or a military operation into Gaza in order to weaken the group that took power in Gaza five years ago.
Israel invaded the enclave nearly four years ago in an operation during which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
