Israeli military targeted senior Islamic Jihad operative in airstrike --paper

GAZA CITY, Aug 7 (MENA) - The Israeli military confirmed on Saturday night that senior Islamic Jihad operative Khaled Mansour had been killed in an Israeli airstrike and that to the best of the military's knowledge, all senior Islamic Jihad officials in Gaza had been eliminated since Operation Breaking Dawn began on Friday, reported the Jerusalem Post of Sunday.

The Israeli military continued to strike cells that had been planning to fire mortar shells as well as rocket launching sites after they fired toward Israeli communities near the border, the paper said. Several Palestinian operatives belonging to Islamic Jihad were killed and injured in the strikes, it added.

According to reports in Gaza, several civilians were killed including a 5-year-old girl and a 25-year-old woman, and at least 125 more were injured, the paper said.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad also confirmed Mansour's death from an Israeli airstrike early Sunday morning, the paper added.

An Israeli intelligence official said that "we also have solid information from many Palestinian citizens that verifies the fact that the harm to the children in Jabaliya" was caused by a failed rocket of the Islamic Jihad," the paper said.

With over 15% of all rockets fired by Islamic Jihad falling in the Strip, the military says that it could say with certainty that the Jabaliya explosion was not caused by an Israeli airstrike and that the Israeli military was not in the area at the time. At least 12 Islamic Jihad operatives have also been killed since the fighting began, it added.

The Israeli military said that Israeli air force jets, armed drones, helicopters, tanks, artillery and elite commando ground Maglan and Egoz units carried out over 40 strikes, hitting dozens of targets in Gaza, including military bases, weapon production sites and storehouses, rocket launching sites, buildings used by operatives, observation posts and more, according to the paper.