Gaza Terrorists: Onslaught of Rockets in Israel Was Just a 'Drill', Vow More Bloodshed

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) sent hundreds of rockets into Israel last weekend, killing four Israeli citizens and injuring hundreds more. But the Gaza-based terror group says the recent onslaught of deadly rockets is just the beginning of an all-out war with the Jewish State.

"The last escalation was only a live fire drill in preparation for the major campaign that is coming," PIJ  Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhaleh said Tuesday during an interview with the Hezbollah-linked al-Mayadeen news outlet.

Nakhaleh said PIJ coordinated with the Hamas terror group to spark last week's violence.

It began when the terrorists shot two Israel Defense Forces soldiers who were monitoring the violent "March of Return" riots on the Israel-Gaza border.

"We decided to fire at an IDF officer and a female soldier last Friday in cooperation with Hamas to respond to the killing of protesters at the March of Return," Nakhaleh said, according to Israel's Channel 13 news. "This was decided while we were in Cairo. The Egyptians didn't like the fact that this happened while we were in Cairo. Myself and Yahya Sinwar decided to continue the escalation," he said, referring to Hamas's Gaza chief.

"Between us and Hamas there is agreement on everything," Nakhaleh said.

Even though Hamas is the only terror group governing Gaza, both groups are funded by Iran.

Israel responded to the rocket attacks by conducting air strikes on Hamas targets and assassinating a Hamas leader. The IDF said the leader was in charge of receiving terror funding from Iran and giving it to terrorists in Gaza.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 29 Palestinians were killed by Israel's air strikes. At least 11 of those deaths were terrorists. Eight of them were from Islamic Jihad, the groups confirmed.

The conflict ended after Palestinian leaders said they reached a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

The fighting was the worst it has been since Israel's war with Gaza in 2014.

Nakhaleh said if the fighting continued for just a few more hours, "it would have been possible to bombard Tel Aviv."

Israel is on high alert as the nation is just days away from hosting Eurovision, a European song contest that is expected to attract thousands of tourists and millions of viewers.

While Israel struck terror targets in Gaza, PIJ said it would disrupt the event.

"We will prevent the enemy from succeeding in establishing any festival aimed at harming the Palestinian narrative," PIJ said in a statement released as the Israel Air Force began pounding dozens of terror targets throughout the Strip in response to the 150 rockets fired at Gaza border towns on Saturday.