Command room
Command roomIDF spokesperson

The IDF has reported the elimination of the Islamic Jihad military commander Khaled Mansour in an airstrike in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Mansour, commander of the southern division of the Islamic Jihad's military arm, was one of the two senior Islamic Jihad commanders together with Tayseer Jabari who was killed Friday.

Mansour was responsible for the incident in which the late Col. Pinko Zoaretz and the late Major Eliraz Peretz were injured.

IDF spokesman Brigadier General Ran Kochav said, "We still don't have absolute certainty that Khaled Mansour was killed, but the two assistants who were with him in the hiding apartment were killed, and apparently he was eliminated as well."

Earlier on Saturday evening, it was reported that four children were killed in Gaza in an IAF airstrike. However, investigations revealed footage which proved unequivocally that the children were killed by an Islamic Jihad rocket which failed to properly launch, falling back into Gaza and landing in the heart of Jabalia.

In addition, the IDF database showed that there had been no Israeli strikes on Jabalia since 6:34p.m., while the incident which killed the Gazan children occurred at 8:30p.m. - just prior to several rocket launches.