Islamic Jihad said in a statement that one of its top leaders, Taysir Al-Jabari, had been killed in an Israeli strike. He was the commander of the Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, the group said, and a member of its Military Council.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said at least nine people were killed, including a five-year-old girl, and another 55 were injured.
A CNN producer in Gaza saw medics carrying two bodies out of a building called the Palestine Tower, which was hit in one of the strikes.
An Israeli army statement said the military operation, dubbed Dawn, was aimed at Islamic Jihad, the smaller of the two main armed groups in Gaza. A “special situation” has been declared in areas around Gaza in anticipation of possible rocket fire or other retaliatory attacks, the Israeli military said.
Islamic Jihad vowed to respond. “All options are open, with all means available to the Palestinian resistance, whether in Gaza or outside,” spokesman Daoud Shehab was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera. “The battlefield is open… The Resistance will respond with full force. We won’t say how, but it’s inevitable.”
Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, condemned the Israeli actions. “The Israeli enemy who started the escalation against Gaza and committed a new crime must pay the price and bear full responsibility for it,” said spokesman Fawzi Barhoum.
The strikes come after Israeli forces captured a senior Islamic Jihad commander, Bassam al-Saadi, in a raid on Monday night in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.
During that operation, a 17-year-old Palestinian linked to Islamic Jihad was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said he was shot in the head by Israeli forces.
Saadi was one of two wanted terror suspects detained in that attack, Israel said. The Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said it was mobilizing its forces in the Palestinian territories in response.
Recent months have seen repeated Israeli operations in and around Jenin, following several fatal attacks in Israel carried out by Palestinian gunmen from the region. Thirty Palestinians have been killed in the attacks since the start of the year, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The story unfolds, more to come…
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