An Israeli airstrike has killed a second Palestinian militant commander in the Gaza Strip, fuelling fears that the three-day-old "pre-emptive" Israeli operation could escalate into all-out conflict.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad confirmed early on Sunday that Khaled Mansour, who led the Iran-backed group's operations in the south of the blockaded territory, had been killed in bombing overnight. His death follows the targeting of Tayseer Jabari, who was killed on Friday at the outset of the surprise operation "Breaking Dawn", the worst outbreak of violence between Israeli and Palestinian militants since a brief war last May.
"The blood of Commander Khaled Mansour will ignite the battle to defend Jerusalem and the blessed al-Aqsa mosque . Today will not pass until our people see what reassures them and satisfies their eyes," the group said in a statement. Large numbers of Jewish visitors at the holy city's sensitive al-Aqsa compound on Sunday have further inflamed tensions.
A total of 31 Palestinians, among them six children, as well as members of Islamic Jihad, have now lost their lives in the bombing campaign, while 13 people have been treated in hospital for minor injuries as hundreds of retaliatory rockets were fired at southern Israel. Israel said a stray rocket fired by Islamic Jihad killed several children in Jabalia, northern Gaza, on Saturday. Islamic Jihad has not commented on the claim, while the aligned group Hamas, which rules the strip, blamed the attack on Israel.
Palestinians and Israelis are wary of the possibility that the violence could spread, after Islamic Jihad fired rockets overnight west of Jerusalem and large numbers of Jewish visitors were admitted to the al-Aqsa mosque compound to commemorate the destruction of two ancient temples that once stood on the site.
The area is holy to Muslims and Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. Informally, Jews are allowed to visit but not pray at the site: in recent years, however, increasing numbers of Jewish visitors, sometimes praying or with police escorts, have inflamed longstanding Palestinian fears that Israel plans to annex the area.
Islamic Jihad, the smaller of the Gaza Strip's main two militant groups, is not encumbered with the responsibility of running the day-to-day affairs of the impoverished territory, unlike Hamas. As a result it is viewed as a more militant resistance faction, often acting independently and sometimes even undermining Hamas's authority.
Whether the latest confrontation between Israel and Islamic Jihad will escalate into full-scale war largely depends on whether Hamas intervenes.
Israel has inflicted significant losses on Islamic Jihad in the past three days; the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) signalled on Saturday that the operation would last about a week. Every passing day, however, increases the risk of miscalculation or escalation, which could draw Hamas into the fray.
Egypt, traditionally a mediator between Israel and Gaza's armed groups, has been pushing for ceasefire negotiations; Palestinian and Israeli media reported on Sunday that fuel shipments to power the strip's sole power station would hopefully resume after the plant was forced to shut down the day before.
The violence follows a week of tension prompted by the arrest of Bassem al-Saadi, Islamic Jihad's top commander in the occupied West Bank, last Monday. While Islamic Jihad did not launch rockets after Saadi's arrest, Israel has insisted that the group is seeking revenge.
The Gaza Strip has remained relatively quiet since the war in May last year, which killed 256 people in Gaza and 14 people in Israel.
The new round of fighting comes as Israel prepares for its fifth elections in four years after the collapse of a short-lived coalition government, which ousted the longtime prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.