The Islamic Jihad suffered a severe blow from Israel during the “Shield and Arrow” operation, Israel managed to assassinate the top of its military wing during the operation, destroyed its rocket stockpiles and their production workshops in the Gaza Strip and demonstrated operational and intelligence superiority over it.
The Islamic Jihad is licking its wounds and looking for revenge and to restore its dignity.
The Palestinian street does not buy its leaders’ statements about “victory”
over Israel and its explanations for the failure.
Ziyad Al-Nakhala, the Secretary General of Islamic Jihad, said on May 23th to the “Hayat Washington” newspaper that the elimination of the military elite of his organization was due to “the complacency of the activists and the use of communication.”
He claimed that among the senior officers of the military branch there were cell phones.
“Our brothers were negligent in assessing the situation on how the enemy tracks communication devices. All of our brothers who became martyrs had cell phones,” stressed Al-Nakhala.
Senior officials in Israel deny Al-Nakhala’s claim that Israel agreed to stop the policy of targeted assassinations as a condition for the ceasefire, the body of the senior Islamic Jihad leader Hader Adnan who committed suicide in an Israeli prison through a hunger strike was also not returned to the Palestinians.
Has deterrence towards the Gaza Strip been achieved?
It is still too early to judge, Israel has already killed the leaders of the military branch of the Islamic Jihad three times, in 2019, in 2022 and now in the “Shield and Arrow” operation, according to sources in the Gaza Strip, the Islamic Jihad has begun the process of restoring its military capabilities with Iranian funding and is planning revenge on Israel through a major terrorist attack.
The Hamas movement is satisfied with the military blow that the Islamic Jihad received from Israel, it was weakened and humiliated while Hamas remained strong and portrayed as the one who showed responsibility towards the residents of the Gaza Strip.
The military wing of Hamas is now drawing lessons from the IDF’s military operation against the Islamic Jihad.
The Israeli security establishment is also preparing contingency plans for the assassination of some Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar, who is the head of the political and military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and of Muhammad Def, the chief of staff of the military wing, as well as an attack on the joint military headquarter of all the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s air defense systems “Iron Dome” and “David’s Sling” successfully stood up in Operation “Shield and Arrow” against the rocket barrages of the Islamic Jihad towards Israel which launched about 1500 rockets.
The Islamic Jihad is a member of the axis of resistance led by Iran, although it is relatively small compared to its other members such as Hamas or the Houthi rebels in Yemen, but Iran is disappointed with its performance during the last round of fighting in the Gaza Strip, it failed to carry out any attack against Israel using anti-tank missiles or using drones and not to penetrate Israel through a penetrating tunnel, the ground barrier that the IDF has established around the 60 km long Gaza Strip has proven itself against the tunnels.
Israel won the last round of fighting against the Islamic Jihad, it was a tactical victory and not a strategic one, but it is important for two main reasons: one, sending a clear message to the axis of resistance led by Iran that Israel will not be silent about harming its citizens with rockets, and the second reason is taking the initiative and surprise the enemy by the IDF, the time has come for the IDF to re-adopt this principle, take advantage of its intelligence advantage over the Iranian axis of resistance and strike it with wisdom and surprise using the long arm of the Air Force.
Israel is not deterred by the Islamic Jihad’s rocket fire, it takes into account that a confrontation with the Hamas movement or Hezbollah is a completely different story in terms of the number of rockets, drones and precision missiles that will be launched into its territory, but the latest battle against the Islamic Jihad once again emphasizes the need of Israel to adopt the principle of placing a preemptive counter strike on the enemy at its sensitive points, this is a very important principle that has no substitute from a military and moral point of view and causes great embarrassment to the enemy.
The Islamic Jihad is portrayed among the Palestinians and Arab countries as an organization whose military leadership has already been killed three times in a row by Israel, this is a major damage to its image and popularity, in addition to the fact that Iran or no other factor in the axis of resistance did not come to its defense during the “Shield and Arrow” operation.
The Islamic Jihad started with the restoration of its damaged military power, it is already preparing for the next round of fighting and in the meantime is looking to take revenge on Israel in a creative way to regain some of the prestige it lost in the last round of fighting.
