- By David Gritten and Rushdi Abu Alouf
- BBC News, in London and Gaza City
May 11, 2023 at 1:18 am BST
Updated 1 hour ago
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BBC’s Yolande Knell: ‘A very scary day for Israelis and Palestinians’
The Israeli military has killed the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rocket launch force in an early morning airstrike on an apartment in Gaza.
Two other people, who the military said were also militants, died in the attack in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Later, sirens wailed in southern Israel as about ten mortars were fired from Gaza. No injuries were reported.
On Wednesday, militants fired 507 rockets and mortars at Israel and Israel attacked 158 PIJ targets in Gaza.
Twenty-five people have been killed and 76 injured in Gaza since Israel launched its operation against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) on Tuesday morning with a series of attacks that have killed three other commanders, local health officials say.
At least ten civilians are among the dead, which the United Nations has said is unacceptable.
According to the Israeli military, four people, including three children, were killed in rocket attacks in Gaza on Wednesday, although this has not been confirmed by Palestinian sources.
Islamic Jihad said the claim was “completely false” and accused Israel of wanting to avoid responsibility for her death.
According to local health officials, there were no fatalities in Israel, although several people were injured en route to emergency shelters.
Image source: Anadolu Agency
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Israel bombed a sixth floor apartment overnight, killing Ali Hassan Ghali and two other people
Early morning Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis destroyed an apartment on the top floor of a six-story building and also damaged the apartment below.
The PIJ’s armed wing confirmed that the head of its missile unit, Ali Hassan Ghali, also known as Abu Mohammed, was killed in the attack, which it described as a “treacherous Zionist assassination”.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, three people were killed and seven others injured. Palestinian media reported that the other two dead were Ghali’s brother and nephew.
The PIJ is the second largest militant group in Gaza after Hamas, which controls the area, and has been responsible for many rocket attacks on Israel in recent years.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that they had targeted Ghali and what they called “other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza.”
It described the commander as a central figure in the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who was “responsible for the recent rocket attacks on Israel”.
Later Thursday morning, militants in Gaza fired about 10 mortar shells at Israeli communities in Eshkol’s southern regional council, local officials said, adding that none landed in populated areas.
Some of the rockets and mortar shells fired hit houses and buildings, but most landed in open areas or were intercepted.
According to Israeli media, the Israeli emergency medical service Magen David Adom said it had treated 32 people as of Thursday morning, of whom 15 were injured while running to emergency shelters and 17 were suffering from severe anxiety.
On Wednesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel’s election campaign is not over yet.
“We have dealt Islamic Jihad the heaviest blow it has ever suffered,” he said, referring to Tuesday’s killing of the three PIJ commanders and the attacks on dozens of the group’s rocket and mortar launch sites.
Islamic Jihad threatened dark days if Israel “intensified its aggression.”
A spokeswoman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he follows developments in Gaza with grave concern and “condemns the civilian loss of life, including that of children and women, which he considers unacceptable”.
“The Secretary-General urges all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and work to end hostilities immediately,” she added.
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More than 500 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel since Wednesday
Egypt is seeking a ceasefire between the two sides.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on Wednesday that a proposal from Cairo was “examined”. Palestinian factions reportedly want Israel to agree to stop so-called “targeted killings.”
This week’s fighting is the heaviest since three days of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad last August that left 49 Palestinians dead in Gaza.
A serious flare-up erupted last week when PIJ and other groups fired more than 100 rockets at Israel in two days after the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in an Israeli prison. In response, the Israeli military launched airstrikes on locations it claimed were linked to Hamas.
Tensions remained high in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday after Israel carried out arrest raids.
Three Palestinians were killed in the town of Qabatiya by Israeli forces who said the trio fired on them. An Israeli soldier was also seriously injured in a separate exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen in tubas.
Additional reporting by Antoinette Radford in London