Gazans criticize Islamic Jihad terror group for misfired rockets

Some Gazans have criticized Palestinian Islamic Jihad for causing a number of civilian deaths in Gaza during the last round of violence between Israel and the terrorist organization.

The Israel Defense Forces claimed that at least one-fifth of PIJ’s rockets misfired and killed civilians, including at least four minors of the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza. 

“Video circulating online appears to show one rocket launching and then twisting back towards a neighborhood of densely packed buildings in Gaza, followed by an explosion and rising gray smoke,” according to AFP.

PIJ Rocket Misfires, Lands in Gaza Neighborhood During Live Mayadeen TV Broadcast – Reporter Claims It Was Launched Towards the Sea, Asks Cameraman to Turn Camera Away pic.twitter.com/S9GwFmSs6L

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) August 8, 2022

Hamas, the terrorist organization that runs Gaza, said 49 Gazans were killed – 17 of them children – and that more than 350 were wounded.

“I was with my wife and children in my house when we heard the sound of a huge explosion. Two minutes later I looked out the window and saw a horrible scene. A house nearby was destroyed,” the AFP quoted Abdul Rahman, a Jabalia resident.

One of the rockets fired by Islamic Jihad at Israel had instead “landed on the house,” Rahman said.

Another Jabalia resident, known only as Souha for security reasons, told the AFP that mistakes happen on both sides. 

“It’s a war and there are mistakes of the occupation and the resistance,” she said, noting that she “saw a rocket fall on her neighbors’ house.” She did say, however, that “the reason for the war is still the occupation.”

Muhammad Shehada, a Gaza analyst and the European Union affairs manager at the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, criticized the PIJ’s lack of military standards openly, saying that the rockets that fell inside the Strip were not well built. 

“They [the Islamic Jihad] have tried to improve the range and explosive power of their rockets – but not with a solid scientific basis. The ones that went beyond 40 kilometers [25 miles] were not mechanically or technically savvy. They were the ones that fell back to Gaza,” Shehada said. “Hamas has offered repeatedly to Islamic Jihad to help design and improve the rockets, but Jihad always say they have it under control.” 

Shehada also criticized the PIJ for achieving nothing in the recent conflict.

“Usually Hamas would agree on a ceasefire with some tangible deliverable to the people of Gaza,” Shehada said. “This [occasion] doesn’t offer anything.”

PIJ’s rockets not only killed civilians in Gaza. On Aug. 7, an Islamic Jihad rocket killed Hamas terrorist Yasser Nimr Al-Nabahin, as well as his three children, when it landed on his house. The Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed the report to Israeli media.  

Nabahin was reportedly on the payroll of the Gaza Interior Ministry as a “Hamas-affiliated” police officer and was off-duty at the time of the rocket strike.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the Shin Bet claimed that Gazan officers serve simultaneously in the police force and in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, which is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, placing them, “de facto, still [as] part of Hamas’ combat troops, participating in military activity against the IDF.”

The Brigades described Nabahin as an “al-Qassam mujahid” (holy warrior) and one of the military wing’s “loyal knights.” At his funeral, Nabahin and his children were draped in Hamas flags.