Top Gaza militants killed by Israelis

TEL AVIV, Israel – In a strong signal that eliminating Palestinian militant commanders has become Israel’s top priority in this new phase of fighting in the Gaza Strip, three senior Hamas commanders and two from the smaller group Islamic Jihad were killed in airstrikes Thursday, according to officials and media reports.

The latest strikes in Gaza appeared to be in keeping with a tactical shift on the part of Israel, which until this week had mainly targeted infrastructure such as infiltration tunnels and rocket-launching sites.

That changed Tuesday, when the Israeli force tried to assassinate Hamas’ top military commander, killing his wife and infant son in the process. Hamas said the commander, Mohammed Deif, was not present at the time, but some Israeli media reports cast doubt on that statement.

Thursday marked a third day of renewed hostilities in Gaza after two weeks of relative calm, during which the two sides had for the most part observed a series of temporary cease-fires while holding indirect talks in Cairo. The negotiations collapsed along with the respite; there was no word on when or whether those talks would resume.

Hamas said in a brief announcement that its three men killed Thursday in the battered southern Gaza town of Rafah were senior members of its military wing, identifying them as Mohammed abu Shamaleh, Raed Attar and Mohammed Barhoum.

Witnesses said Israeli warplanes fired a volley of missiles that leveled a five-story building in the Tel Sultan neighborhood. Palestinian health officials said at least seven other people were killed in the strike. Thousands of angry, chanting Palestinians marched in Thursday’s funeral processions, demanding vengeance against Israel.

The Israeli military later confirmed that the three Hamas commanders were specifically targeted. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the strike sent “a clear message to those responsible for planning attacks” against Israel.

Later, another strike hit two suspected members of Islamic Jihad’s rocket squad as they rode on a motorbike in Rafah, Israeli media reports said.

The three slain Hamas men were senior members of the Izzidin al-Qassam Brigade’s command structure. Attar was the local commander in Rafah and was believed to have overseen the building of a network of tunnels in the area and the smuggling of weapons from Egypt. Abu Shamaleh was a commander in southern Gaza, and Israel says he and Attar masterminded the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held prisoner in Gaza for five years before being freed in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange.