A man mourns during the funeral of a Palestinian killed in an airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on May 9, 2023. Israeli fighter jets on Tuesday morning intensified airstrikes on military targets of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 20 others, said the Palestinian health ministry. (Photo by Khaled Omar/Xinhua)
JERUSALEM/GAZA, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Israeli fighter jets on Tuesday morning intensified airstrikes on military targets of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 20 others, said the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinian security officials in Gaza told Xinhua that the airstrikes were carried out against buildings, military facilities, and posts mainly in the towns of Rafah and Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip and in Gaza City.
An Israeli army spokesman said in a press statement that the Israeli army launched the military operation "Shield and Arrow" against the PIJ militants in the Gaza Strip, which is ongoing.
In a joint operation of the army and the General Security Service, "PIJ commander in northern Gaza, a PIJ leader responsible for directing activities in the West Bank from Gaza, and the secretary of the military council of PIJ were all eliminated," the statement said.
Israel Defense Forces Spokesman Daniel Hagari said the three PIJ leaders who were killed in the operation were "an undermining factor for security stability."
The Israeli army also said that according to an assessment of the situation, the army had ordered Israeli residents living close to the Gaza Strip to stay near bomb shelters at a distance of 40 km for fear of rocket fire from Gaza.
Citing possible retaliatory rockets from Gaza, Israel suspended the train service in the southern cities near Gaza. In many communities, local municipalities opened shelters, and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant authorized a call-up of reserve soldiers.
The health ministry in Gaza said in a statement that the killed in the attack also include women, children, and additional individuals who were in the vicinity of the airstrikes. At least 20 other people were injured as the airstrikes hit the top floor of a residential building in Gaza City and a house in Rafah, a city in the southern Gaza Strip.
Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the PIJ movement in Gaza, said in a statement that it mourned the three leaders "who were assassinated as a result of a cowardly Zionist crime at dawn today."
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) also mourned the death of "a group of distinguished resistance leaders" of the Islamic Jihad Movement.
PIJ sources told Xinhua that among the dead were Tareq Izel Dein, the spokesman of PIJ in the Palestinian territories, his wife and two children, and two other senior PIJ military leaders.
The airstrikes came less than a week after over 100 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel following the death of PIJ official Khader Adnan, who had been on hunger strike for 86 days while under Israeli custody. ■
