IAF STRIKE KILLS ISLAMIC JIHAD LEADER

IAF strike kills Islamic Jihad leader

Defense Minister Amir Peretz ordered the IDF on Sunday morning to carry out an investigation into the previous night's targeted killing of Muhammad Dadouh - considered Islamic Jihad's most senior military commander in the Gaza Strip - in which Hanan Aman, 25, her five-year-old son and the child's grandmother were also killed and five other bystanders wounded, including Aman's three-year-old daughter.

Although Peretz expressed regret for the death of innocent civilians, he said he would continue to authorize strikes targeting terror leaders in Gaza responsible for missile attacks, "in particular those behind the recent Grad-type launchings," a military official said.

The army said that in addition to several other attacks against Israeli targets, Dadouh was personally involved in the firing of a Grad-type Katyusha rocket that fell near a Netiv Ha'asara farm last Tuesday, killing 30 chickens. That attack was the third time Gaza terrorists fired a Katyusha.