Special to WorldTribune.com

TEL AVIV — Israel’s military, amid daily attacks from the Gaza Strip, has resumed targeting suspected Palestinian rocket commanders.

On Feb. 9, the Israel Air Force targeted a leading Palestinian rocket commander in the Gaza Strip.

The commander, said to have been seriously injured, was identified as Abdullah Al Kharti, a member of the Hamas-aligned Popular Resistance Committees.

“Precision munitions combined with advanced intelligence enables us to strike terrorists like Kharti while they attempt to use Hamas’ Gaza as a haven for their hostilities,” Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.

Al Kharti, 28, was said to have been involved in numerous rocket attacks on Israel. Officials said Al Kharti, who conducted attacks for Al Qaida’s Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, represented the sharp increase in missile and rocket strikes on the Jewish state in 2014.

Officials said Al Kharti also helped smuggle weapons from Gaza to Sinai. They said the Israel Security Agency, responsible for domestic intelligence, helped track Al Kharti.

“Gaza terrorists will not be immune to launch these cross border attacks
at Israeli civilians,” Lerner said.

Palestinian sources said Al Kharti and another Palestinian were injured
in Dir El Balah in the central Gaza Strip. They said Al Kharti was driving
on a motorcycle and lost his arm.

“We see Hamas as being responsible for what occurs in the Gaza Strip,
and if it does not know how to enforce its authority in its territory, we
will know how to exact a price from it too,” Israeli Defense Minister Moshe
Ya’alon said.

  Abdullah Al Kharti, Israeli renews ‘precision’ strikes on Gaza rocket commanders, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, Moshe Ya’alon, Popular Resistance Committees