With Operation Shield and Arrow concluded after around five days of fighting, the IDF on Sunday put out its summary of the Gaza conflict.
From May 9 to May 13, Islamic Jihad fired 1,478 rockets and mortars on Israel, while the IDF hit the terror group 422 times, including 278 completely distinct targets.
The Iron Dome missile defense system shot down around 95% of those Islamic Jihad rockets which threatened Israelis, with over 430 shoot downs.
In addition, 20% of Islamic Jihad rockets landed in Gaza, killing three Gazans and wounding dozens.
Another key aspect of the IDF’s strategy was successfully keeping Hamas out of the conflict.
Footage of IAF strikes on rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip during Operation Shield and Arrow. (Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
In terms of Israeli military accomplishments, besides the hope that the operation generally restored deterrence, the IDF killed six senior Islamic Jihad leaders, including three in the opening seconds of the conflict around 2:00 a.am. on May 9.
Toledano: ‘It was important to start with complete surprise’
IDF Southern Commander Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano said, “it was important to us to start the operation with complete surprise, in the middle of peacetime, because against terror organizations which use their citizens and families as human shields, it is necessary to operate using clever tactics.”
In addition to that initial success, IDF chief spokesman Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari has said that a parallel achievement which could not be taken entirely for granted was striking another three top Islamic Jihad leaders on May 11 and 12 when those officials were already trying to hide, knowing they were targets.
Finding them mid-operation was its own special intelligence challenge.
But Toledano said, “it was important to continue with the successive attacks [to thwart Islamic Jihad threats] and to thwart [Islamic Jihad] each day. This work was a byproduct of our partnership, with no ego and without addressing at all how much credit I [or anyone else] should get.”
Other achievements according to the IDF was reducing Islamic Jihad’s mortar fire capabilities by 50% by striking around 63 mortar-connected targets.
The IDF did not specific percentages of its impact on remote-timer-fired rockets, but it did say that it had destroyed 122 concealed rocket positions, which it estimated had prevented the firing of another 800 rockets more than were fired.
Next, the IDF struck 12 target-locations which had been used to manufacture rockets as well as 19 Islamic Jihad command centers to disrupt the terror group’s ability to coordinate its activities.
This was a significant amount of the possibly only dozens of such command centers.
Further, besides the six senior Islamic Jihad officials killed, another 15 more junior terrorists were killed by IDF attacks.
The IDF said that 120 combat aircraft and 14 combat helicopters were involved along with 115 strikes carried out by drones and another 10 strikes carried out by land-based military forces.
Hundreds of reservists were involved in key combat roles despite concerns in recent months that reservists might not answer the call to duty in protest against the government’s potential judicial overhaul.
There were 8,200,000 interactions between Israeli citizens and the Home Front’s online platform for providing guidance and information.
20 ships from the navy were also involved in providing security from the sea during the operation.
The Islamic Jihad officials assassinated by the IDF
The first three and most senior Islamic Jihad officials killed started with Khalil Bahitini.
IAF strikes on senior Islamic Jihad terrorists during Operation Shield and Arrow (Credit: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
Khalil Bahitini, the commander of the al-Quds Brigades in the northern Gaza Strip, Tareq Ezzaldin, a spokesperson for the movement who also managed terrorist activities in the West Bank and Gaza, and Jihad Ghanem, secretary of the movement’s military council.
They were all killed almost simultaneously, within minutes of each other, by a mix of around 40 aircraft and drones.
The commander was responsible for rocket fire toward Israel in the past month and was planning further rocket fire in the near future, according to the IDF.
Who is Tareq Ezzaldin?
Next was Tarq Ezzaldin, a spokesperson for the terror group, who was responsible for the communications between the movement and its branches in the West Bank, for transferring funds and coordinating incitement efforts in Israeli territory. Ezzaldin was released from Israeli prison in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap.
Who is Jihad Ghanem?
Next was Jihad Ghanem, secretary of the movement’s military council, who was one of the most senior and veteran operatives in the movement and served at one point as the commander of the al-Quds Brigades in the southern Gaza Strip. In his latest position, Ghanem was responsible for coordinating the transfer of funds and weapons from the PIJ to Hamas.
The wives and some of the children of the three senior terrorists were killed in the strikes as well.
Despite those numbers, most current and former IDF officials cited the operation as an example of a series of top-notch surgical strikes in complex urban areas which mostly succeeded at keeping civilian casualties lower than what might be expected from other militaries with lesser intelligence and precision munitions capabilities.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.
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