The IDF provided instant retaliation for the murderous attacks in southern Israel Thursday, killing the terrorist commander who presided over the attacks.
The top terrorist was Abu Awad Kamel a-Neirab, commander of the Salah a-Din Brigades, the "military" wing of the Popular Resistance Committees. He was killed while meeting in a house along with two other terrorist heads of the terrorist group and a child who was with them, although it was clear that keeping the child there was placing him in danger.
The PLC is a smaller version of Hamas. Channel 2 news Arab affairs expert Ehud Yaari compared it to "Hamas's appendix."
A-Neirab's predecessor as commander of the Salah a-Din brigades, Khalil al –Quqa, was killed by the IDF five years ago. The PLC commander, Jamal Samahadneh, was killed a short time later, on June 9, 2006.
The group vowed revenge – and mounted a successful attack against the IDF 19 days later – the attack in which two soldiers were killed and one, Gilad Shalit, was abducted.
According to some reports, the PLC was planning an abduction today, too. However, Israel had prior knowledge of a planned attack and special forces were on hand. While they failed to preempt the attack, they were able to minimize its success.