Additional strike on Sunday morning targets rocket-launching crew in southern Gaza.
By YAAKOV LAPPIN, REUTERSSmoke rises in Gaza after IAF air strike 370 (R)(photo credit: Amir Cohen/Reuters)
The Israeli strike on a two men on a motorbike in northern Gaza on Saturday night killed the commander of a Jihadi-Salafi terror group, Palestinian medical sources said.The commander has been named as Hisham Al-Saedni, also known as Abu Al-Waleed Al-Maqdissi, believed to head the Jihadist Salafi group Tawhid and Jihad (One God and Holy War). Al-Saedni and his accomplice has been firing rockets into southern Israel, took part in past terror attacks on Israel from the Sinai Peninsula, and was in the final stages of plotting a new attack, an IDF source said.Tawid and Jihad is a rival to Hamas, has an Islamist ideology shared by al-Qaida and sources have said that Saedni joined al-Qaida in Iraq at the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003.In March 2011 Hamas detained Saedni for 17 months and had freed him in August.Last year members identifying themselves with Tawhid and Jihad kidnapped and killed a pro-Palestinian Italian activist, Vittorio Arrigoni, in an apparent attempt to secure the release of Saedni.Early on Sunday morning, The IAF struck a terrorist rocket-launching crew in Gaza which was about to fire at southern Israel, killing one.The air strike came after Palestinian rocket attacks on the Eshkol Regional Council overnight.On Friday, a Palestinian Grad missile fired at Netivot triggered air raid sirens, sending residents running for cover, before exploding in the backyard of a family home. The projectile sent shrapnel flying into the home, piercing the walls of the building’s walls, including a boy’s bedroom. One civilian was treated for shock and then taken to the hospital, Negev police said.A few hours after the rocket attack, the air force responded by striking three terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip overnight Friday.
