Islamic Jihad claims al-Khdeira operation, five Israelis killed

Saraya al-Quds (Jerusalem groups), the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, claimed responsibility for a suicide operation in a market in the downtown of al-Khdeira city, north Israel, that resulted in killing five Israelis and wounding other 30.

The leading figure in the Islamic Jihad movement Jihad Khuder said that the operation came as a retaliation to the assassination of the commander of the movement's military wing in the north of the West Bank Lou'i al-Saadi. Al-Saadi , 32 years old, the highest official in the Jihad, was murdered in a raid launched by the Israeli forces against Toulkarem city.

He said that the movement had agreed to easing down escalation, according to the Palestinian consensus, but it "retaliated to the continued Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people," as he alleged.

The Palestinian authority condemned the operation and called on the Palestinian groups to abide by the ease down agreement. The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that the operation is damaging for Palestinian interests.

The secretary of the national initiative Mustafa al-Barghouthi blamed Israel for this escalation. He indicated in a telephone call with al-Jazeera satellite TV that "this operation comes as a result of the Israeli crimes, detention and the policy of assassination and closure."

He added that Israel did not abide by the agreements, and that the occupation army killed 120 Palestinians since the ease down agreement, and other 2500 were detained, besides the continue settlement's expansion and rejection of any sort of contacts with the Palestinian authority to discuss the future of peace.