Categories: IDF & Security / Gaza / News Briefs / Islamic Jihad

IDF Waited Two Days to Hit Islamic Jihad Commander Because He Hid Behind Human Shields

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May 11, 2023, 3 PM ET

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Israel waited two days before striking at Islamic Jihad terrorist leader Ahmed Abu-Deka, who was killed in an airstrike conducted Thursday afternoon. The IDF said that it waited for a time when innocent civilians would not be harmed because Abu-Deka was protecting himself by using people as “human shields.” Abu-Deka was a deputy to Ali Ghali, who commanded Islamic Jihad’s rocket squads in Gaza. Ghali was killed in an IDF airstrike on Thursday morning.

המחבל אחמד אבו דקה ימ"ש , בכיר במערך הרקטי שחוסל בתקיפה ב-חאן יונס pic.twitter.com/Tg2jF16PQr
— בז news (@1717Bazz) May 11, 2023

Head of the IDF Southern Command Major General Eliezer Toledano told the press, “We waited for him (Abu-Deka) to be separated from the family he used as a human shield.” Toledano commended Israel’s intelligence services for its ability to know when it would be possible to hit Abu-Deka without harming innocents saying, “There is very impressive work here by our intelligence, with an emphasis on the Shin Bet, extraordinary work by the Air Force.”

הבית שהותקף ב-חאן יונס, חוסל בכיר במערך הרקטי של הג'יאהד האיסלמי. pic.twitter.com/cZH6MwAgct
— בז news (@1717Bazz) May 11, 2023

“The important idea is to reach those people who make use of human shields to protect themselves from us, and conduct fighting from urban areas,” he added.