Israel air strikes on Gaza kill 12

At least 12 Palestinians have been killed and a dozen others wounded, including children, in a series of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, medical sources have said. 

The latest airstrike late on Friday struck down three Palestinians after an apache fired rockets that hit a house and a car.

An earlier strike targeted the leader of Popular Resistance Committees, Zuhair Al-Qaissi, and his military escort Mahmoud Al-Hannani, a Palestinian prisoner released from Israeli jails five years ago.

Witnesses said Israeli drones were seen hovering above just moments before al-Qaissi's vehicle burst into flames. The intensity of the blast was so fierce that al-Qaissi's head detached as a result, they said.

Islamic Jihad said that the three of those killed belonged to its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, looking to end Israel's occupation of annexed Palestinian lands. 

The Al Quds Brigades, part of Islamic Jihad group, said that strikes on the east side of the city had killed its members Obeid al-Gharabli, Mohammed Harara, Hazem Qoureqa and Shadi Seqali. It said that another two of its members, Fayeq Saad and Moatasem Hajaj, were also killed in other strikes.

In addition to the high profile strike, Israeli war jets carried out series of attacks at empty military training camps all over Gaza Strip.

The Israeli attacks came after Palestinians fired dozens of rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel, wounding four people, one seriously, Israeli military sources claimed.

The Israeli military said dozens of rockets were fired into Israel.

A spokeswoman said the rocket attacks had injured at least four people, one seriously. Some of the rockets had been intercepted by Israel's "Iron Dome" anti-missile system, she added.

The rockets were apparently fired in retaliation for the killing of the PRC leaders.

The Palestinian Authority condemned the strikes, saying it had created a "negative environment" that would "escalate the circle of violence in the region," according to a statement released by the official Palestinian WAFA news agency. 

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, has maintained a tacit truce with Israel, but other armed Palestinian groups regularly fire rockets and mortars across the border, which can spark air strikes in response.

"The recent Zionist escalation is an unjustified crime, it comes as a part of the destabilisation of a stable security situation in the Gaza Strip" the Hamas-run Gaza government's interior ministry said in a statement.

"We hold the international community fully responsible for the attacks." Before Friday's air strikes, Israeli army radio quoted what it called "senior military sources" as saying the army "does not intend to allow the firing to continue."

An Israeli military spokesman said Qaisi was behind a series of gun and bomb attacks near Israel's border with Egypt last year, in which eight Israelis were killed. Ten of the attackers and five Egyptian soldiers also died.

The spokesman warned Israelis living within range of rockets fired from Gaza to stay indoors overnight.

A spokesman for the PRC in Gaza vowed to take revenge on Israel for the attack.

The PRC, which represents a number of armed factions aligned with Hamas, has carried out several rocket and grenade attacks against Israel. It also sometimes operates independently of Hamas.

"All options are open before the fighters to respond to this despicable crime. The assassination of our chief will not end our resistance," Abu Attiya, a spokesman for the PRC group said.

The former head of the PRC, Kamal al-Nairab, and its military chief were killed in a similar Israeli attack last year.