Three senior Islamic Jihad commanders were killed by Israeli forces in Gaza air strikes and at least nine civilians, including no fewer than four children, on Tuesday morning, Palestinian officials disclosed, as the Israeli military said it had launched strikes against the militant group.
The air strikes were the latest incident in more than a year of surging violence that has seen repeated Israeli military raids and escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank, amid a spate of Palestinian street attacks on Israelis.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that last week saw a series of cross-border fire after the death in Israeli detention of a hunger striker from Islamic Jihad.
Israel’s military said it targeted three senior commanders of Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful armed group in the blockaded coastal enclave, which is controlled by the Islamist militant group, Hamas.
‘Any terrorist who harms Israeli citizens will be made to regret it,’ said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
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Israel’s military, working with the Shin Bet intelligence service, targeted the leadership of the Islamic Jihad in Gaza in a “precise” operation, he added.
The military said 40 jets took part in the strikes, which it said were timed to suit operational conditions.
‘It was a convergence of intelligence, timing, and weather,’ a military spokesperson said.
A Gaza health official said at least 12 people had been killed and 20 wounded in the strikes that hit residential areas in the densely populated strip in which 2.3 million Palestinians live on a patch of 365 square kilometres (140 square miles).
An Israeli military spokesman said the army was looking into reports of civilian deaths but had no immediate comment.
Islamic Jihad’s armed wing confirmed the deaths of the three commanders, adding: ‘We will not abandon our positions and the resistance will continue, God willing.’
The group identified the commanders killed as Jihad Ghannam, Khalil Al-Bahtini, and Tareq Izzeldeen.