Earlier today, Israel struck at dozens of targets inside Gaza, including Ahmed Jabari, Hamas’s chief of staff and a senior official in the organization’s military outfit, the Izz ad-din al-Qassam Brigades. Jabari was behind the abduction of Gilad Shalit, and planned the 2007 coup that left Hamas in complete control of Gaza. Sources claim that other passengers in the targeted car riding with Jabari were also killed, including his son, his bodyguard, and Ahmed al-Zahhar, the brother of Hamas’s cofounder Mahmoud al-Zahhar. According to some sources, the assassination of Jabari may be Israel’s most successful direct hit since it targeted Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in 2008.
In addition to eliminating Jabari, Israel has also reportedly killed another military official, Raed al-Attar, Jabari’s second in command. What Israeli officials are calling Operation Pillar of Defense has also concentrated on Hamas’s arsenal, especially its long- and medium-range missiles, some of which are believed capable of reaching Israel’s northernmost cities. “Israel has had more than 800 missiles fired on its citizens over the last year,” an Israeli official told me this morning. “We held fire for a year but decided that it’s enough. We won’t let Hamas hold our cities hostage.”
