The IDF revealed Tuesday that it foiled a Palestinian Islamic Jihad drone attack at the Tamar offshore gas rig during Operation Breaking Dawn.
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The military has increased its efforts to safeguard the platform, which stands some 14 miles off the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Israel's offshore rigs in the Leviathan, Tamar, and Karish gas fields are under constant threats from Hamas and the PIJ in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The three-day conflict saw Islamic Jihad terrorists fire about 1,100 rockets at Israel, of which about 200 hit Gaza's densely populated neighborhoods. These deadly misfires killed 10 people, including four children in Jabalia, and wounded dozens. The Palestinians tried to blame Israel for the tragedy in Jabalia but IDF footage of the area unequivocally proves that it was a PIJ rocket that hit the building.
תיעוד הירי הרקטי הכושל של גא״פ בג׳אבליה: pic.twitter.com/wfiOsQ3l3c
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) August 7, 2022
These misfires and the PIJ's massive rocket salvos on Israel evoked criticism by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the terror organization, appearing in both the press and social media.
According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute, critics claimed, among other things, that the PIJ is an Iranian proxy organization acting for the benefit of Iranian interests and thus inflicting suffering on Gaza residents.
Some argued that the conflict erupted due to Iran's desire to expedite nuclear talks in Vienna. One writer criticized the launch of Iranian missiles from within the civilian population in Gaza.
Elements in Saudi Arabia and the UAE also mocked recent statements by commanders of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warning that Israel would "pay a high price for its crimes in Gaza," and that Hezbollah would "strike Israel hard" when the time was right. They questioned why Iran was not following through on its threats.
In a lengthy front-page report on Sunday, the London-based UAE daily Al-Arab criticized the PIJ, writing that "Gaza again became an arena for the settling of accounts between Iran and Israel, when the Palestinian citizens are the ones paying the price."
Saudi journalist Tariq Al-Homayed mocked Iran and PIJ in his Sunday column in the Al-Sharq Al-Awsat daily: "The question addressed here to the Qods Force commander and all members of the mendacious resistance is: When will 'the time be right' to remove Israel from the map and the globe … and why not [do it] now in response to Israel's focused attack on Gaza, especially against the [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad movement? … "
Bias coverage of the conflict and especially of the PIJ's misfires and the damage they caused in the Strip was caught on live television on Aug. 7, when Lebanon's Mayadeen TV covered a PIJ rocket attack on Israel and viewers had the chance to see it misfire and hit a Gaza neighborhood.
The correspondent can then be heard in the video, a translated version of which was posted on MEMRI's website) on Monday, stating that rockets are "being launched toward the sea, maybe towards the gas fields."
One of the rockets can then be seen straying off course, veering away from the coastline and hitting a home in Gaza. A few moments later, a voice is heard instructing the cameraman, who followed the missile's course, to "please, turn the camera away, turn the camera upwards."
The presenter then attempts to continue the broadcast, saying, "Yes, Ahmad, apparently rockets were launched towards the sea."
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According to IDF data, more Palestinian civilians were killed by misfired PIJ rockets than by Israeli strikes.
JNS.org contributed to this report.
