Israel strikes ‘wide range’ of targets in Gaza ‘in response to rocket fire’ AFTER a truce came into effect following three-day bombardment which killed at least 31 Palestinians and ‘took out’ Islamic Jihadist commander

Israel has struck ‘a wide range’ of targets in Gaza after a truce came into effect ‘in response to rocket fire’ it received moments before a ceasefire introduced after a three-day bombardment which killed at least 31 Palestinians and ‘took out’ Islamic Jihadist commander.

Israel agreed to an Egyptian-proposed truce with Palestine after three days of intense conflict in Gaza, an Egyptian source said.

But Israel’s military said this evening that it was firing rockets at targets in Gaza after the 8.30pm truce in response to strikes fired towards its own territory, having had to issue multiple air raid warnings up to 8.29pm.

A statement said: ‘In response to rockets fired toward Israeli territory, the (military) is currently striking a wide range of targets belonging to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organisation in the Gaza Strip.’

Israel had agreed a truce after a three-day bombardment of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) positions on the Gaza Strip which killed at least 31 Palestinians, while militants fired hundreds of rockets back amid escalating violence.

Six children are among the dead since the conflict began Friday, while 275 people have been wounded, said health authorities in the enclave where several buildings were reduced to rubble.

Israel launched its first bombardment on Friday as part of a surprise operation named ‘Breaking Dawn’ that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said was a ‘pre-emptive strike’ designed to thwart a planned PIJ rocket attack.

The IDF early this morning continued their intense aerial and artillery bombardment of the Iran-backed group, which has fired hundreds of rockets in return since Friday.

Israeli authorities said one of their attacks late last night killed a PIJ commander Khaled Mansour, who was believed to have been hiding in an apartment building in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, but several Palestinian civilians were also killed in the blast.

The fighting is the worst in the region since an 11-day war in May 2021 between Israeli forces and Hamas, the Gaza strip’s de-facto governing authority, which devastated the impoverished coastal territory home to some 2.3 million Palestinians and forced Israelis to seek shelter from rockets.