GAZA STRIP (AP) — Israel killed three senior commanders of the Islamic Jihad insurgent group in targeted airstrikes early Tuesday, the army said. Palestinian health authorities reported 13 deaths in total, including the commanders, their wives, several of their children and other people nearby.
Attacks on densely populated residential areas set the stage for a new round of heavy fighting. They reached the top floor of an apartment building in Gaza City and a house in the southern town of Rafah. According to the Palestinian ministry, 20 people were injured and ambulances continued to evacuate people from the attacked areas.
Airstrikes continued into the early morning, hitting insurgent training centers, Israel said.
In the past, Palestinian insurgent groups in Gaza have retaliated against such targeted killings. In anticipation of possible Palestinian rocket attacks, the Israeli military advised residents in communities within 40 kilometers (25 miles) of the Strip to stay near designated bomb shelters.
Israel’s Home Front command ordered the closure of schools, beaches and roads in cities and towns in southern Israel and limited public gatherings.
According to the army, the three men were responsible for the recent firing of projectiles towards Israel.
Israeli authorities identified them as Khalil Bahtini, the Islamic Jihad commander for the northern Gaza Strip; Tareq Izzeldeen, the group’s intermediary between its members in Gaza and the West Bank, and Jehad Ghanam, secretary of the organization’s military council. Their funerals are expected to take place later in the day.
Islamic Jihad, which is backed by Iran and smaller than Hamas, the insurgent group that rules Gaza, confirmed that the three top commanders were among the dead. The Palestinian Ministry of Health stated that the victims of the offensive, 13 people in total, included the commanders, their wives, several of their children and others nearby.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh warned that Israel “will pay the price” for the deaths. “Killing the leaders with a treacherous operation will not bring security to the occupier, but more resistance,” Haniyeh said in a statement.
The airstrikes came at a time of high tension between Israel and the insurgency in the Strip. They are related, in part, to the growing violence in the occupied West Bank, where Israel has been conducting almost daily raids for months to arrest Palestinians suspected of planning or carrying out attacks against Israelis.
Last week, insurgents in Gaza fired several salvoes of rockets into southern Israel and the army responded with airstrikes after the death of a senior Islamic Jihad member who was on hunger strike in Israeli custody. The confrontation ended with a fragile ceasefire brokered by Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar.
Israel claims its incursions into the West Bank are aimed at dismantling insurgent networks and thwarting future attacks, but the Palestinians see them as entrenching Israel’s 56-year occupation of land they want for their future state.
So far this year, 105 Palestinians, about half of whom were insurgents or suspected attackers, have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank and East Jerusalem this year, according to a count by The Associated Press. At least 20 people lost their lives in Palestinian attacks in Israel in the same period.