Israeli Air Strikes Kill Militants in Gaza

Nine members of Islamic Jihad and a Hamas activist have been killed in a spate of Israeli air strikes on Gaza, which have resulted in retaliatory attacks on Israel.

Three of the Islamic Jihad members were targeted as they emerged from morning prayers at a northern Gaza mosque. Six others died when Israeli aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City last night. An attack on a security post in southern Gaza killed the Hamas activist.

The Israeli army said the target of the first air strike was Majed Harazin, a senior Islamic Jihad militant in charge of the rocket squads that have been firing at Israel.

Islamic Jihad spokesman Khaled el-Batch confirmed Harazin was killed. The group said he was its top commander for the West Bank and Gaza.

"There is no doubt that this is a big loss," said Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza.

In response to the air strikes, Palestinian militants fired rockets and mortar shells at Israel this morning, causing damage but no casualties.

Islamic Jihad, a small radical group with ties to Iran, has taken responsibility for most of the attacks on Israel, including one that caused minor wounds to a two-year-old boy in an Israeli village this week.

Gaza's militant Hamas rulers are not thought to be involved in the cross-border attacks, but allow other radical factions, including its Islamic Jihad allies, to operate.

The air strikes in Gaza came after the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, gained strong support for his moderate government at an international donors' conference in Paris.

Donors pledged $7.4bn (£3.7bn) in aid over the next three years, far more than he expected.

Abbas is locked in a power struggle with Hamas, which overran Gaza in June after routing his fighters.

In a sign of mourning for the dead Islamic Jihad fighters, all of Gaza City's mosques played verses from the Quran over loudspeakers today.

Thousands of people took to the streets in funeral processions for the dead militants, whose bodies and coffins were draped with black Islamic Jihad flags.

Islamic Jihad fighters in fatigues and black baseball hats fired long bursts of bullets into the air. Loudspeakers mounted on cars at the head of the processions blared: "Revenge is coming soon."

In an email sent to reporters, Islamic Jihad said it would retaliate for its losses with suicide attacks inside Israel, threatening "a wave of martyrdom operations".

In a separate development, Islamic Jihad in Gaza announced that its commander in the northern West Bank had been killed by an undercover Israeli unit in the village of Qabatiyeh. Residents and security personnel discovered an empty car riddled with bullet holes and with red stains on its seats, but no body has been found.