A senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander and one other person were murdered in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in the Gaza Strip before daybreak.
In Hamad Residential City, next to Khan Younis in the south of the strip, a warplane struck an apartment on the fifth floor of a structure.
On Wednesday, Gaza terrorists launched over 460 missiles at Israel.
In the fiercest battle in nine months, the Israeli military struck more than 130 terrorist targets in Gaza.
At least 24 people have died as a result of combat this week, including three more PIJ commanders, according to Palestinian medical authorities.
As the missiles were launched from Gaza, several people were harmed in Israel as they rushed to safety.
The head of the PIJ’s missile section, Ali Hassan Ghali, also known as Abu Muhammad, was killed in the attack on Thursday morning, according to the organization’s armed wing.
After Hamas, the PIJ is the second-largest militant organisation in Gaza, and it has vowed to exact revenge on anyone who have slain Palestinians.
Israel’s military acknowledged that Ghali and two “other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza” were the targets of the attack.
They called the commander “responsible for the recent rocket barrages launched against Israel” and said he was a key member of the PIJ.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a warning that Israel’s campaign was still ongoing on Wednesday night.
He referred to the Tuesday death of the three PIJ commanders as “the most significant blow” that Islamic Jihad had ever experienced.
A truce was reportedly negotiated by Egypt, according to Egyptian media hours before Mr. Netanyahu spoke, but neither party immediately confirmed the news.
Earlier, a grouping of armed groups in Gaza issued a warning: “Dark days await Israel if it escalates its aggression.”
Since three days of fighting between Israel and PIJ last August, during which 49 Palestinians were murdered in Gaza, this week’s airstrikes have been the worst.
Many of the latest missile strikes on Israel were launched by PIJ, which has vowed to destroy Israel.
Following the murder of a Palestinian hunger striker in an Israeli prison, there was a severe flare-up last week, during which the PIJ and other groups launched more than 100 rockets into Israel over the course of two days. In retaliation, the Israeli military launched airstrikes against websites it claimed were affiliated with Hamas.
Following Israeli arrest raids on Wednesday, tensions also remained high in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces said the two Palestinians in question had fired at them when they murdered two of them in the town of Qabatiya. During a separate gunfight with Palestinian assailants in Tubas, another Israeli soldier was critically injured.
