Israel strikes Gaza killing 13 people, including children

At least 13 Palestinians, including three commanders of the militant group Islamic Jihad were killed in Israeli air strikes on Tuesday (9 May) on the Gaza Strip.

Eight women and children were among the dead and 20 people were injured, according to Palestinian health officials.

An operation had been launched targeting militants who posed an imminent threat to Israeli citizens, reports BBC.

Islamic Jihad vowed revenge and Gaza-based militants were expected to respond with rocket fire into Israel. Israel officials are said to be preparing for days of fighting.

The latest strikes took place in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Around 40 Israeli warplanes and helicopters attacked in several waves across Gaza, hitting homes and causing panic among residents.

The Gaza health ministry said four children and four women were among those killed. Half of the injured were women and children and several were in a critical condition in hospital, it added.

Russia's representative office in the Palestinian territories announced that one of its citizens, Dr Jamal Khaswan, a former chairman of the Gaza Dentists' Association, was killed along with his wife and their son.

Another two of their children survived, it said. They included 10-year-old Diala, who was filmed sitting in the front seat of an ambulance and crying out for her father.

Palestinian sources said Dr Khaswan lived in an apartment in Gaza City next to one of the senior militants who was killed.

Islamic Jihad's military wing, the al-Quds Brigades, confirmed the deaths of three of its commanders, along with their wives and a number of their children. It identified them as: Jihad Shaker al-Ghannam, secretary of the al-Quds Brigades' Military Council, Khalil Salah al-Bahtini, the commander of its Northern Region, Tariq Mohammed Ezzedine, "one of the heads of military action" in the occupied West Bank

"We affirm that the blood of the martyrs will increase our resolve," the al-Quds Brigades said. "We will not leave our positions, and the resistance will continue, God willing."

Israel's Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, said, "Any terrorist who harms Israeli citizens will be made to regret it."

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Bahtini was the senior operational officer of Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and that he was responsible for the rocket fire from Gaza in the last month.

"He was an imminent threat to the security of Israeli civilians."