News from Gaza:
Israel on Thursday killed a senior Hamas political leader in an air strike in the Gaza Strip, the first such attack in its six-day-old offensive.
The air strike killed Nizar Rayyan along with nine other people, including his wife and three children, Hamas said. Another 25 people were wounded. Security sources told Ynet that the house was also used as an arms cache, a communications headquarters and concealed a tunnel’s opening.
Israeli military sources confirmed that Rayyan, who was considered the Hamas leadership’s liaison with the group’s military wing, was killed in an attack on his north Gaza home.
Prior to striking Rayyan’s house the IDF tried to warn his family about the imminent attack and urged them to evacuate the place, but they refused to do so.
Now, it goes without saying (assuming these reports are accurate) that Rayyan, as a man who advocated further suicide bombings against Israel, was a murderous cretin, and, as suspected, the usual suspects are thrilled. A few years ago, I probably would have joined them.
Now, however, my only thought is I wonder what the name of the guy they will kill in a few years will be, because it goes without saying Rayyan will be replaced, and probably with someone just as angry and just as hateful and radicalized by the death of his friends/family/lover, killed in this week’s raids (folks who we here in the States and in Israel will only obliquely reference as “collateral damage”).
Number Nine. Number Nine. Number Nine.