Since the start of the three-day aggression on Gaza, Israeli media has been boasting about the strikes which killed commanders of the Islamic Jihad resistance group.
Picturing the Gaza-based movement as ‘weak’ and ‘defeated’, Israeli media focused on the “blows” occupation military had dealt by killing the group’s northern and southern command chiefs.
However, if we look at the scene from another perspective, Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad managed through three days of fighting to keep the occupied territories, including the Zionist entity’s center, under threat of its rockets.
The group actually has not surprised the enemy with the range of the rockets. However, the intensity of the rockets was increased, despite the continuous Israeli raids on the besieged enclave.
“Despite losing top operatives as well as military infrastructure, Islamic Jihad managed to keep firing a large barrage of rockets until a ceasefire came into effect,” Manish Rai, a geopolitical analyst wrote for the International Policy Digest.
Such capability held the Israeli attention, with Zionist officials also voicing concerns over the destruction caused by the Islamic Jihad rockets.
Photos of Israeli settlements bordering Gaza showed the huge destruction, compared by destruction caused by Palestinian resistance rockets in past battles.
More than 1100 rockets have been launched by the Palestinian resistance at the occupied territories in less than 60 hours, Palestinian and Israeli media reported. Rockets were launched at Gaza border settlements, Tel Aviv and Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
On the other hand, an Israeli official said the Islamic Jihad’s rockets fired at Al-Quds and Tel Aviv were precision.
“Rockets launched on Sunday at Al-Quds were precision, and caused great damage,” Palestine Today quoted an Israeli official as saying.
Talking about the Islamic Jihad’s arsenal, Rai said that the group is “already winning in the firepower stakes,” and it is in possession of some 8,000 short-range rockets including some anti-tank missiles.
“Most of its weapons are now locally produced in Gaza, and in recent years it has developed an arsenal that includes some longer-range rockets capable of striking Tel Aviv.”
“Islamic Jihad’s strategy to confront Israel is simple: it tries to overwhelm the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system by the sheer volume of simultaneously fired projectiles. Many of its rockets are so cheap and easy to manufacture, in some cases requiring little more than a metal casing and an explosive, that the group has managed to accumulate them in significant numbers. So, even if Israel successfully stops all outward weapons supplies coming into Gaza — Islamic Jihad’s homegrown capabilities will allow it to bombard Israel with rocket fire for weeks, if not months. Islamic Jihad has moved towards entirely indigenous production, often manufacturing both the weapons and explosives out of raw materials readily available in the Gaza Strip,” the geopolitical analyst added.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
