Multiple Killed amid New Fighting in Israel and Palestinian Territories as Egypt Pushes Truce

Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip killed two Palestinian commanders on Thursday, while a 70-year-old man was killed by Palestinian rocket fire in the first fatality inside Israel amid the current wave of fighting. The continuing bloodshed, which has left 28 Palestinians dead, came despite Egyptian efforts to broker a cease-fire.

It has been the worst bout of fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinians in Gaza in months, with at least 10 civilians — mostly women and children — among the dead. The conflagration, now on its third day, comes at a time of soaring tensions and spiking violence over the past year in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians launched unrelenting rocket barrages into Israel throughout the day. One rocket struck an apartment block in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, killing a 70-year-old man, the MADA rescue service said. It said four others were moderately wounded.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli military pressed ahead with its strikes against the Islamic Jihad group and said a senior commander in charge of the group's rocket launching force, Ali Ghali, was killed when his apartment was hit.

Later in the day, Israel said it killed another Islamic Jihad commander who was meant to replace Ghali in southern Gaza. Islamic Jihad confirmed the man, Ahmed Abu Daqqa, was one of its commanders. 

The Health Ministry in Gaza said a total of 28 people have been killed since the fighting erupted. Among the dead were at least nine Islamic Jihadists, 10 civilians and nine others, including four whom Israel says were killed in failed rocket launches, whose affiliation remained uncertain.

Military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told Israeli Army Radio that two others were also killed in the early morning strike, although no group immediately claimed them as members, and that the rest of the building remained intact.

"The apartment was targeted in a very precise way," Hagari said. "I hope this leads to a reduction, a blow and a disruption of the Islamic Jihad rocket abilities."

The strikes targeted the top floor of a building in a residential, Qatari-built complex in the southern Gaza Strip. The pre-dawn airstrike in the city of Khan Younis caused damage to three surrounding buildings. The complex, known as Hamad City, consists of several tall buildings and thousands of housing units. The strike created panic among residents, with falling debris and shattered glass littering the streets.