Israel kills senior Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza

JERUSALEM — In a surprise strike before dawn Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group in the Gaza Strip, setting off waves of retaliatory rocket attacks that immediately raised fears of an escalating new conflict.

Islamic Jihad said that the commander’s wife was also killed in the attack, which the Israeli military said was a missile strike from a fighter jet.

Right away, militants in Gaza began firing barrages of rockets toward southern and central Israel from the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Bracing for a broader fight, the Israeli military said in a statement that it had deployed troops and was “prepared for a wide range of offensive and defensive scenarios.” Schools and businesses were closed in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area as air-raid sirens blared and Iron Dome missiles intercepted at least 20 incoming rockets, officials said. Tens of thousands of Israelis took cover in bomb shelters.

The Israeli military described the commander, Bahaa Abu el-Atta, as a “ticking bomb” who was “responsible for most of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s activity in the Gaza Strip.” The group is listed as a terrorist organization by many countries and is supported by Iran.

The military said Abu el-Atta was to blame for rocket fire toward the Israeli border town of Sderot in August and early November, and he was being closely monitored over the past week because he was planning a specific new attack against Israel.

Islamic Jihad also blamed Israel for another missile attack at dawn Tuesday on the Damascus home of Akram al-Ajouri, describing him as a member of the group’s political bureau in Syria.

Al-Ajouri was reported to have survived the attack. The Israeli military refused to comment on the attack in Damascus.

The only confirmed Israeli casualties as of midmorning involved people who suffered minor injuries as they raced to shelters or who were treated for panic or fainting, officials said.

Around 11 a.m., the Israeli military said it carried out another airstrike in Gaza against what it said were two Islamic Jihad operatives from the group’s rocket unit. Health officials in Gaza put the casualties there at three dead so far, suggesting one of the two had been killed, and 18 wounded.

An hour later, the military said it was striking more Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip.