IDF confirms targeted strike in northern Gaza – The Jerusalem Post

The IDF confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the air force had fired on two separate Gazan cars, one in the morning and one in the early afternoon, both of which tried to avoid inspection moving from central Gaza to northern Gaza.

There were unconfirmed reports of at least one dead and multiple wounded in one of the incidents, with no clear reports on the second incident.

Reports first started to stream out about the event around 9:45 a.m., with IDF sources finally confirming the strike to the Post around 1:00 p.m., but the military remained publicly silent for more than another hour.

Video footage on social media appeared to show a vehicle on a road moving northward near the Mediterranean Sea suddenly exploding.

In the morning incident, the IDF said it only undertook distancing or warning fire, but was probing how the episode had turned out.

No word on killed persons

In the afternoon incident, the IDF said that prior to targeting the car it took some precautions to avoid striking Palestinian civilians, such as using a precision weapon and following the car from the air long enough to wait for it to be farther away from civilians.

However, the IDF did not address whether the car’s passengers could have been arrested or if they presented any immediate danger, signifying that current IDF rules of engagement for cars which avoid a check may be to strike the car from the air without attempting an arrest.

IDF sources later confirmed that firing from the air is currently the main option available to the military in such a case.

It may be more difficult for the IDF to carry out an arrest given that it has withdrawn much of its forces to external defense lines and many of the inspections are now reportedly being carried out by a mix of private contractor American and Egyptian military inspectors.

Also, the IDF did not say how many persons were killed or wounded in either incident

To date, since the January 19 ceasefire, there have been very few such incidents.

Generally, there has been almost no fighting at all.

Where there have been minor departures from the ceasefire, it was mostly brief attempts by Gazans to probe Israeli interim defense withdrawal lines to see if they could get through or how close they could get, with IDF forces responding with distancing fire.

It was unclear if the incidents were a limited move to stop narrow violations or part of some larger strategy, and it was also unclear if the incidents were related from the perspective of Gazan terror.

This is a developing story.