<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>A pre-dawn Israeli air strike on an apartment in the Gaza Strip has killed a top Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander and one other person.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A warplane attacked an apartment on the fifth floor of a building in Hamad Residential City, near Khan Younis in the south of the strip.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Wednesday saw militants in Gaza firing more than 460 rockets at Israel.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Israeli military hit more than 130 militant targets in Gaza, in the heaviest fighting in nine months.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Palestinian medical sources estimate the death toll from fighting this week is now at least 24, including three other PIJ commanders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Several people were hurt in Israel rushing to shelters as the rockets were fired from Gaza.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The armed wing of the PIJ confirmed that the head of its missile unit, Ali Hassan Ghali, also known as Abu Muhammad, had died in Thursday morning's attack.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The PIJ is the second biggest militant group in Gaza after Hamas, and it has sworn to avenge the deaths of Palestinians killed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Israel's military confirmed it had targeted Ghali and what it called two "other Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They described the commander as a central figure in the PIJ who had been "responsible for the recent rocket barrages launched against Israel".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A damaged building in the Gaza Strip after Thursday's Israeli air strike</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Map showing the Gaza Strip and southern Israel</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Wednesday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel's campaign was not over.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We have hit Islamic Jihad with the most significant blow it has ever suffered," he said, referring to the killing of the three PIJ commanders on Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hours before Mr Netanyahu spoke, Egyptian media reported that Egypt had brokered a ceasefire, but there was no immediate confirmation from the two sides.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An umbrella organisation representing armed factions in Gaza earlier warned that "if Israel increases its aggression, dark days await it".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This week's air strikes were the deadliest since three days of hostilities between Israel and PIJ last August, in which 49 Palestinians were killed in Gaza.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">PIJ has been responsible for many of the rocket attacks on Israel in recent years and is sworn to Israel's destruction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was a serious flare-up last week, as PIJ and other groups fired more than 100 rockets into Israel over two days, following the death in an Israeli prison of a Palestinian hunger striker. The Israeli military carried out air strikes on sites it said were linked to Hamas in response.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tensions also remained high in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, after Israel carried out arrest raids.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Two Palestinians were killed in the town of Qabatiya by Israeli forces, who said the pair had fired at them. An Israeli soldier was also seriously wounded during a separate exchange of fire with Palestinian gunmen in Tubas. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>