Clash looms between Israel and Gaza militants

25 Jan AFP

A clash seems to be looming between Israel and the radical Palestinian movement Islamic Jihad, as they abandon pledges made under a fragile ceasefire that ended the last full-scale war in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Israel recently targeted two of the group's militants for firing rockets at it, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to teach Gaza-based militants a “lesson.” Islamic Jihad has in turn threatened to take its war to Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It said it plans to carry out suicide attacks in Israel, for which it was notable during the Palestinian intifada that killed Israelis and thousands of Palestinians at the beginning of the last decade.

And it has threatened to incite unrest in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, whose governing Palestinian Authority is in faltering peace talks with Israel.

In the latest violence, Islamic Jihad said Israel killed one of its militants, Ahmad al-Zaanin, and his cousin in an air strike in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel said Zaanin was behind rocket attacks on the Jewish state and an “immediate” danger to Israeli civilians.

In response, Islamic Jihad said the “blood of our martyrs will not have been shed in vain.” At the time, Netanyahu promised Gaza groups, including the besieged enclave's rulers Hamas, that they would learn a lesson “very soon” if rockets continued to be fired, referring to Israel's policy of retaliating “forcefully.” The security correspondent for Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily said the strikes marked an escalation on Israel's part.