Senior Hamas commanders killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza: The armed wing of Hamas announced on Thursday that three of its senior commanders were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike in the south of Gaza strip that medics said killed seven people.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of the three commanders, Mohammed Abu Shamala, Raed al-Atar and Mohammed Barhum. According to the eyewitnesses, the strike took place in the southern city of Rafah on the Egyptian border. The attack leveled a four-storey family home in Rafah.

The deadly raid strike came after the wife and eight month old son of the Brigades' top military leader, Mohammed Deif, were killed after five one-ton bombs struck a multi-storey building in Gaza City late Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Brigades said that Deif had escaped the attack and warned foreign airlines to halt flights into Tel Aviv, vowing no let up in its six-week war with Israel. The Israel Defence Forces said that it struck 20 targets over Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said that eight Palestinians were killed in pre-dawn air strikes on Thursday, seven in Rafah and another in Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. It was not immediately clear if the three dead commanders were among, or in addition to, the seven dead recorded by medics.

At least 2,058 Palestinians and 67 Israelis have been killed in the conflict that began on July 8. Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, compared the Hamas movement in Gaza to the Islamic State (Isis), calling the two groups a “branch of the same tree”. In a press conference on Wednesday night Netanyahu said that the Gaza war “will be a continued campaign” aimed at restoring “calm and safety” to Israeli citizens.