Cease-fire Begins Between Israel, Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad

Palestinian rockets (Mustafa Hassona / Anadolu Agency via Getty)
Mustafa Hassona / Anadolu Agency via Getty

An Egyptian-brokered cease-fire began Sunday evening at 11:30 p.m. local time between Israel and the Iranian-backed terrorist militia known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) after two days of fighting in which Israel had the clear upper hand.

PIJ fired hundreds of rockets at Israel — including at the major cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv — none of which caused any direct casualties, thanks to Israel’s Iron Dome system, which knocked down rockets aimed at the country’s population centers.

One PIJ rocket landed on a home in the Israeli town of Sderot, but the family was sheltering inside their home’s “safe room.”

The Iron Dome receives some funding from the U.S., which has obtained the system from Israel. Some pro-Israel advocates noted that several members of Congress voted against new Iron Dome funding after last year’s war between Israel and Palestinian terrorists.

Some PIJ rockets killed and injured Palestinian civilians.

Meanwhile, Israel wiped out much of the PIJ’s command structure and eliminated significant portions of its weapons caches, while also attacking observation posts and underground tunnels.

In the final moments before the cease-fire, the Times of Israel reported, each side launched a few final attacks.

Experts remain puzzled as to why PIJ would care to confront Israel now, without the participation of Hamas, the terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip and that allows PIJ to operate. The lopsided result will hurt Iran’s image in the region.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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