Israel hit another unnamed country earlier this month during Operation Breaking Dawn, an extensive Israeli counterterrorism campaign against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi revealed Thursday.
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He said the military was active in Gaza, the West Bank, and in another, third, arena.
"Ten days ago, the IDF struck with great precision [PIJ commanded in Gaza] Tayseer Jabari, who is an arch-terrorist," Kochavi said. "While security forces were carrying out arrest raids in the West Bank, the military also performed strikes in a third country to maintain security stability along the rest of Israel's borders."
He stopped short of naming the particular country.
The location of the "third country" is a topic of speculation among Israeli media, i24NEWS defense correspondent Jonathan Regev referred to past Israeli operations and the language that Kochavi used.
"Kochavi saying '360-degree defense of the borders,' meaning perhaps a country bordering Israel. And in this sense, let's go back three years to the previous operation against the PIJ in 2019… at the same time, Israel operated in Syria," he said. "The Islamic Jihad has its branch in Gaza, but its leaders live abroad, mostly in Syria. Kochavi could perhaps be hinting that Israel was not only trying to kill PIJ commanders in Gaza, but also leaders elsewhere."
Earlier this week, Syria blamed Israel for an airstrike in which three soldiers were killed and several others wounded.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
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