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VIDEO - The Israel Air Force on Saturday evening assassinated a senior member of the Islamic Jihad's military wing Muhammad Dahdouh, an expert in producing al-Quds rockets. A Palestinian woman, Hanan Aman, her 4-year-old son Mohanad and his grandmother Naima Aman were also killed in the blast. Three people were wounded, including the child's sister. Talking to Ynet, military sources confirmed that the IAF fired at a car in Gaza. Palestinian sources reported that the blast occurred near the home of Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar.
According to the IDF, the fire was targeted at a senior Islamic Jihad member who was involved in firing Qassam rockets at Israel and in other terror activities. IDF officials said that Dahdouh was involved in the preparation of Grad rockets, the Katyusha rockets fired at Israel recently. The last Katyusha was fired last week, landing near a chicken coop in the southern community of Nativ Haasara.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz recently instructed the army to focus its efforts in operations against Islamic Jihad members and operate against the Grad threat. Defense establishment officials estimated that the terror organizations currently hold 10 to 20 similar rockets. Some of them are apparently improvised, but definitely hold a higher risk than Qassams in terms of range and the amount of explosives.
Islamic Jihad officials said that Dahdouh was one of the organization's prominent leaders and an expert in producing the organization's al-Quds rockets. Dahdouh was the person responsible for issuing statements on behalf of the organization, in which it cleamed responsibility for launching rockets and responded to IDF assassinations. A spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, declared that "the revenge for the killing of Muhammad Dahdouh will come soon and will be painful."
Muhammad Dahdhouh is the brother of Khaled Dahdouh, who was killed several months ago by an explosive device planted in his car by Israeli security forces. |