On May 8, Israel launched “Operation Shield and Arrow” with the elimination of three senior members of Iran-backed terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip. The IDF identified the three as Khalil Bahtini, Jihad Ghanam and Tareq Izzeldin.
Bahtini was a senior PIJ commander who had been in charge of the recent rocket attacks against Israel and served as a liaison with the group’s politburo, the Israeli military said. Ghanam held command responsibilities that included weapons and money transfers between PIJ and Gaza’s ruling Islamist terrorist group, Hamas. Izzeldin coordinated between PIJ cadres in Gaza and the West Bank and was “planning multiple terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians,” the military said.
