Israel’s army and Gaza militants traded heavy cross-border fire for the third day on Thursday in the worst escalation of violence to hit the coastal enclave in months in which at least 22 Palestinians were killed.
Islamic Jihad said one of its military leaders was among the dead in overnight strikes carried out by Israeli forces.
“Ali Ghali… commander of the rocket launch unit… was assassinated in the south of the Gaza Strip along with other martyrs,” said a statement from the Al-Quds Brigades, the armed branch of the group.
Smoke billowed from the densely populated coastal enclave after Israel announced it was targeting the group’s rocket launch sites.
Sirens in the Tel Aviv area and Israel’s south warned of incoming rockets. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant noted over 400 launches from Gaza late Wednesday, as Islamic Jihad said Palestinian “resistance” was keeping up its fire.
Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were killed Wednesday, a day after Israeli strikes on the Palestinian territory left 15 dead including three top Islamic Jihad militants and four children.
Late Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “still in the midst of the campaign”, noting that “no Israeli civilian has been wounded up to now”.
Israeli officials and sources in Gaza close to Islamic said Egypt was working on a possible truce.
The Arab League on Wednesday condemned the “aggressive (and) barbaric Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, which targeted civilians, children and women in residential neighborhoods”.
In Washington, the White House said that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had spoken with his Israeli counterpart Tzachi Hanegbi and reaffirmed the US’ “ironclad support for Israel’s security”.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has escalated since Netanyahu’s latest coalition, including extreme right and ultra-Orthodox parties, took office in December.
This week’s Gaza violence is the worst since a three-day escalation in August killed 49 Palestinians, with no Israeli fatalities. It brings to 132 the number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict so far this year.
