GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli aircraft carried out strikes on Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, as the group confirmed that three commanders of the organization were killed during the offensive.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said, without going into details, that there were several deaths and injuries from the shelling. The Israeli military said the airstrike targeted the residences of three senior commanders of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group.
Witnesses reported that an explosion occurred on the top floor of an apartment building in Gaza City and at a residence in the city of Rafah. The offensive was continuing into the early hours of Tuesday, targeting fighter training sites.
The Israeli army said that the bombardments were directed against Khalil Bahtini, commander of Islamic Jihad 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 Islamic Jihad military council. He claimed that the three were responsible for the recent rocket offensive into Israeli territory.
Islamic Jihad, a smaller group than the dominant Hamas movement, confirmed that the three commanders were among the dead.
The bombings come at a time when tensions have been rising between Israel and fighters from the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Hamas group. The tension is linked to growing violence in the West Bank, where Israel has been carrying out operations almost every day for the past few months to detain Palestinians suspected of planning or carrying out attacks against Israelis.
