Haled Shaalahan, an Islamic Jihad leader, was killed in an Israeli Air Force (IAF) strike Wednesday in the northern Gaza Strip. The group has said Shaalahan headed Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit in the northern Gaza Strip, and the Israeli military says Mr. Shaalahan was involved in firing long-range rockets into Israel. Another senior member of the group, Hamza al-Najar, was wounded in the attack in addition to several other Palestinians.

Ever since the incursion into Gaza ended on Jan. 18, the Israeli military had responded to Qassam rocket-fire at Israel’s Negev region mainly with attacks on the border tunnels.

This time, the Israeli military changed its policy in Gaza Strip. For the first time since the operation ended, it appeared that the IDF had returned to its prior policy of targeting Islamic Jihad members from the air.

The Israeli military spokesman said that Shaalahan had been involved in long-range rocket attacks against Israel. In the last few days, Qassam rockets were fired daily at the the Jewish communities near Gaza and at Ashkelon.

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Israeli communities near Gaza have suffered 120 rocket attacks since the end of the incursion.

“Prepare for a response that will involve many rockets,” Islamic Jihad’s spokesman in Gaza, Abu Hamza, said on Wednesday. “We will not let this crime go by without a response.”

Eshkol Regional Council Chairman Haim Yellin said he expects further rocket attacks soon, adding that they are preparing for this and preparing the public to be extra careful.

“From a lot of aspects, our situation is more despairing and more frustrating now than before the large military operation that took place,” Mr. Yellin said. “Then we expected there would be an operation after which we would be able to breathe easier. Now we are after the operation, and the situation has reverted to what it was, with. more rockets and more air-raid sirens.”

One security officer said: “Usually the terrorists’ response comes early in the morning. They know the exact hours when the streets in Sderot fill up and they try to hit the children on their way to school.”

David Bedein can be contacted at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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