Israeli airstrikes kill 10 in Gaza

Israeli aircraft launched an assault on the radical Islamic Jihad organisation from the skies over Gaza late yesterday and early today, killing the group’s overall commander and eight other members in three strikes.

A fourth attack on a security post in southern Gaza killed a Hamas militant, that group said.

Three of the Islamic Jihad militants were targeted as they emerged from morning prayers today at a mosque in northern Gaza. Six others died when Israeli aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City after nightfall yesterday.

“There is no doubt that this is a big loss,” Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told The Associated Press.

The deadly strikes against Islamic Jihad are part of a stepped-up Israeli offensive against Gaza. Islamic Jihad, a small radical group with ties to Iran, has taken responsibility for a number of rocket barrages, including one that wounded a two-year-old boy in an Israeli village this week.