By Esat Firat
JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel’s Public Security Minister on Tuesday called on the country to resume its policy of assassinating leaders of Palestinian resistance organizations in the wake of a rocket barrage on the Gaza border.
“Due to rising tensions during the day and rockets fired, Israel needs to resume its policy of assassination in the West Bank tonight,” Gilad Erdan said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 10.
Zionist operatives initiated the assassination policy in 1944, four years before Israel’s establishment, when they assassinated Walter Edward Guinness, a British politician and businessman opposed to Jewish immigration to Palestine.
Since 1966, Israel has assassinated at least 366 Palestinian activists and resistance fighters, according to Al-Haq, a Palestinian human rights NGO.
Pointing at leaders of Hamas due to rocket fire during the day in southern Israel, Erdan said they needed to worry about their lives, as they always said those leaders were responsible for incidents in the region.
At least five Israelis were injured by shrapnel Tuesday when rockets fired from the Gaza Strip struck the Eshkol settlement complex in southern Israel, according to Israeli media reports. Factions of Hamas and Palestine’s Islamic Jihad groups claimed responsibility.
Stating that in the coming days, Israel’s attacks on Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza would increase, he said: “It’s right that we don’t’ want tensions to escalate. But do Hamas and the Islamic Jihad Movement want it or not? We don’t know.”
Four Palestinians were martyred by Israeli airstrikes over the past two days targeting Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
According to a statement earlier in the day by the Israeli army, Israeli warplanes struck 35 resistance positions across the Gaza Strip, including two cross-border tunnels.
