Israeli Air Force Kills Al-Qaeda Influenced Terrorist In Gaza

The Jerusalem Post reports that a "Palestinian terrorist was killed on Friday morning when the IAF struck a Gaza terror cell preparing to fire rockets into Israel, according to the IDF. In a statement, the army said that the terrorist belonged to the Jaljalatt terror organization, a Salafist movement operating in the Gaza Strip and influenced by al-Qaida... In a statement, the IDF said that it viewed Hamas as being fully responsible for maintaining quiet in the South and that the army would continue to respond severely to any attempt to shatter the calm. The statement added that some 770 Kassam rockets, mortar shells and Grad missiles had been fired at Israel since the beginning of 2009. On Thursday evening, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired five mortar shells toward the western Negev. The shells landed in an open field in the Eshkol region, causing no casualties or damage. Earlier Thursday, an IDF bomb squad detonated a 15-kilogram explosive device seized during a search conducted along the Egyptian border." Tweet