Gaza: Militant leaders killed, UN decries civilian deaths

Israeli forces killed a top commander of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad in an airstrike on a building in southern Gaza, the Israeli military and Islamic Jihad said on Thursday.

The Israeli military said it targeted the head of Islamic Jihad's rocket-launching unit, Ali Ghali, and two other militants in an apartment in a residential complex in Khan Younis.

The military added Ghali instructed and took part in rocket attacks against Israel in recent months. Israeli officials said Palestinian militants on Wednesday fired over 400 rockets at Israel. While most of the rockets were intercepted or fell in open areas, four homes were damaged by rocket strikes in southern Israel.

Later on Thursday, Israel killed Ahmed Abu Daqqa, another Islamic Jihad commander who was intended to replace Ghali in southern Gaza.

UN chief urges restraint

Palestinian health officials in Gaza said more than 20 people, including militants and civilians, had been killed amid the recent outbreak of fighting.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the civilian deaths as "unacceptable" and appealed for them to "stop immediately." He also called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint, said Farhan Haq, a UN deputy spokesperson.

Guterres also condemned the indiscriminate launching of rockets from Gaza into Israel, which violates international law. 

Israeli officials said a 70-year-old man was killed by a Palestinian rocket on Thursday which struck an apartment building in central Israel, with several people also wounded from the attack. 

It's the first fatality on the Israeli side since the current round of fighting began. 

"The Secretary-General urges all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and to work to stop hostilities immediately," Haq said.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Dawoud Shehab said Egypt had begun brokering a cease-fire.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Israel's public broadcaster KAN they were examining Egypt's proposals.

The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Jordan and Egypt called for an end to the violence between Israel and Gaza militants.

"The bloodletting must end now," German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said after talks in Berlin with her counterparts.

Jordan's Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi added that the "negative developments must end, peace must be revived."

Near daily airstrikes and rocket fire

The Israeli military said it hit more than 100 targets, including rocket-launching sites, since Tuesday, when it began fresh airstrikes on Gaza that killed three Islamic Jihad commanders.

The airstrikes came at a time of already high tension between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, which increased again last week after a senior member of Islamic Jihad died while on hunger strike in Israeli custody. Following his death, militants fired several salvos of rockets toward southern Israel, and Israel responded with airstrikes.

In a television address on Wednesday Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Islamic Jihad had been hit with a serious blow but cautioned the campaign "is not over yet."

"We say to the terrorists and those who send them: We see you everywhere. You can't hide, and we choose the place and time to strike you," he said.

Islamic Jihad much smaller than Hamas

Islamic Jihad — an Iranian-backed militant group that is smaller than the Hamas militant group that dominates the Gaza Strip — said it would continue firing rockets.

The European Union, the United States and several other nations list Islamic Jihad and Hamas as terrorist organizations.

lo/jsi (AFP, AP, Reuters)