Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military has targeted the suspected rocket chief of the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli military has reported an attack on the Gaza Strip that targeted a leading Jihad operative. The military said the Air Force conducted an air strike against Jihad rocket chief Ahmed Saad.

“The operation targeted an integral component of the Gaza terrorist mechanism,” the military said on Jan. 19.

Saad was identified as a key element in the escalation in Palestinian rocket strikes on Israel. The military said Saad led the Jihad squad that launched five rockets toward the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Jan. 16. All five rockets were reported to have been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome.

Officials said the military warned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the daily Palestinian rocket strikes must be quelled through increasing pressure on Hamas. They said Hamas and Jihad were testing their arsenals for a war directed by Iran.

“I would not recommend that anyone in the Gaza Strip tests our patience
and determination to protect the security of Israeli civilians,” Israeli
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said.

The air strike marked the first Israeli attempted targeted killing in in
2014. Officials said future strikes could focus on the Hamas regime, which
in November 2012 agreed to an Egyptian-arranged ceasefire.

“We are determined to ensure the south remains quiet,” Netanyahu said. “We are doing this through a policy of preventive attacks and forceful retaliation against those trying to strike
us or those who do so. I suggest to Hamas that it take this policy into
account.”

Saad, 24, was said to have been injured in the Israeli strike as he
drove on a motorcycle. The military said Saad, who deployed launch squads
throughout Gaza, had been preparing for additional rocket attacks against
Israel.

“Ahmed Saad was a key Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative in the Gaza
Strip specializing in rocket launching,” the military said. “The Israel
Defense Forces operated in order to eliminate an imminent threat to the
lives of Israeli civilians.

  Ahmed Saad, Ashkelon, Iron Dome, Islamic Jihad, Israel targets Islamic Jihad rocket chief in warning to Hamas