Israeli air strikeskilled nine Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, medical officials said,raising the Palestinian death toll to 19 over a two-day escalation in violencesince Israel launched strikes to kill an Islamic Jihad commander.
From early morningGaza militants fired rockets into Israel and the Israeli military struck fromthe air, resuming after an overnight lull.
The bodies of sixpeople killed in Gaza City were brought into Shifa hospital in taxis andambulances early Wednesday, as relatives wept and screamed. Medics andwitnesses said they were civilians who lived in densely populatedneighbourhoods.
A father and hisson were among the dead with another son badly wounded, said family members.
"They startedthis, we did not want war," said one grieving relative. The Israelimilitary said on Wednesday it had resumed attacking Islamic Jihad targets inthe Gaza Strip. Air strikes took out at least three rocket launchingcrews, a military spokesman said.
Islamic Jihadconfirmed that two of its militants were killed in separate strikes south ofGaza City during the morning. Medics later said another man was killed by anair strike while on a motorcycle.
The worst fightingin months erupted on Tuesday after Israel killed Abu Al-Atta, a seniorcommander of the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad militant group, accusing himof masterminding and planning attacks against Israel.
In response to thekilling of Atta and his wife, Islamic Jihad fired about 200 rockets into Israelon Tuesday, resuming on Wednesday morning.
Despite attempts bydiplomats to restore calm, an Islamic Jihad official told Reuters that hisgroup told mediators it intended to carry on its retaliatory attacks.
"Attempts torestore calm did not succeed, the Islamic Jihad see that it is time to respondto the assassination policy, which was revived by the Zionist enemy," theofficial said, asking not to be identified.
"The enemywill pay the price of its foolishness and we are determined to confront thisaggression with all our might."
However there wasno sign that Hamas, the much larger Islamist group that controls Gaza, wasinclined to be drawn into the fray. Hamas and Israel have managed to defuseprevious escalations and avoid a full-scale conflict for the past five years,after fighting three wars from 2008-2014.
