Israel strikes Gaza killing 13 people, including four children

Israel has carried out a series of strikes on Gaza killing at least 13 people, including three members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, with with Palestinian health ministry saying women and four children were among the dead.

Al Jazeera’s Youmna El Sayed, reporting from Gaza, said the Ministry of Health declared on Tuesday that at least 20 others were injured in the pre-dawn strikes in which more than 40 Israeli war planes carried out attacks for nearly two hours starting at 2am local time on Tuesday (23:00 GMT Monday).
Explosions targeting residential apartments were heard in different parts of Gaza, El Sayed said, adding that most of the civilian victims are family members of the Islamic Jihad commanders. She said civilians around the apartments were also targeted.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement announced that three of its leaders were killed in the air attacks. The group vowed to “avenge” the deaths. The deceased were identified as Jihad al-Ghannam, Khalil al-Bahtini, and Tariq Izz al-Deen.

The three were killed along with their wives and several children, the group said in a statement which did not give details on their wives or how many children were killed and their ages.