A flare-up with Islamic Jihad came in 2019, following Israel's killing of Baha Abu al-Ata, Jabari's predecessor. Hamas has fought four wars with Israel since seizing control of Gaza in 2007, including the conflict last May.
Both are blacklisted as terrorist organisations by much of the West. Islamic Jihad is aligned with Hamas, but often acts independently. "Islamic Jihad is reacting in a limited manner and by doing so is preventing the occupation (Israeli military) from intensifying its air strikes," he told AFP. Jamal al-Fadi, a political science professor at Gaza's Al-Azhar University, said he expected the violence to end "within days". Israel has "once again showed its occupying and aggressive nature to the world," said a statement from President Ebrahim Raisi's office. The Israeli bombardment has been condemned by Islamic Jihad's top backer Iran. Israel and Islamic Jihad confirmed the killing of Taysir al-Jabari, a key commander of the militant group, in a Friday strike. Sources within Islamic Jihad ruled out a ceasefire soon, with one saying: "for the movement, the focus is on the battlefield". 'Declaration of war' - An Israeli military spokesman said its forces were "preparing for the operation to last a week," and told AFP that the army is "not currently holding ceasefire negotiations". "We recognise that on the other side too there is an uninvolved civilian population, and on both sides children deserve to enjoy their summer vacation," the 40-year-old said. In Kibbutz Nahal Oz, an Israeli community beside the Gaza border, resident Nadav Peretz said he has been "in the bomb shelter or around it" since Friday. Civilians on the Israeli side meanwhile took refuge in air raid shelters, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. Daily life in the enclave has come to a standstill, while the electricity distributor said the sole power station shut down due to a lack of fuel after Israel closed its border crossings. Israel's ongoing strikes are being met with barrages of rockets from the Palestinian side, stoking fears of a repeat of an 11-day conflict that devastated Gaza in May 2021. "I was sitting here on the sofa, with my wife and children, and suddenly it all fell on us," he said, surrounded by debris from a partially collapsed roof in a strike he said wounded his wife and son. In Jabalia, in the north of Gaza, Fouad Farajallah was on Saturday surveying what remained of his home, hit by an Israeli strike the day before. Health authorities in the Palestinian enclave, which is controlled by the Islamist group Hamas, said a five-year-old girl was among 15 people killed in the Israeli bombardment, adding that more than 120 others have been wounded. Israel has said it was forced to launch a "pre-emptive" operation against Islamic Jihad, saying the group was planning an imminent attack following days of tensions along the border with Gaza. Israel's military warned Saturday deadly air strikes against Palestinian militants in Gaza could last a week, as cross-border fire reverberated for a second day in the worst escalation since last year's war.