7 Palestinians including top militant killed by Israeli airstrikes

At least seven Palestinians, including a senior Islamic Jihad militant and his wife in Gaza Strip, were killed and 40 others injured on Tuesday in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting Palestinian militants.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said in a text message that two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

The ministry said "two Palestinians including a woman were killed in an Israeli attack that hit a house in al-Shuja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza city."

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also said in an official statement that Baha Abu el-Atta, 42, a senior militant in the al-Quds Brigades, was killed together with his wife.

Israeli warplanes struck the house of Abu el-Atta in al-Shuja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza city, where Abu el-Atta and his wife were killed. Another two Palestinians in the neighborhood were injured.

Earlier Tuesday, the Health Ministry said three Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes on northern Gaza Strip, two of them were killed while riding a motorbike by an Israeli missile.

Sources close to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that the three are members of the rockets firing squad of the group's armed wing, al-Quds Brigades.

Mos'ab al-Briem, Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, said that "the Palestinian resistance is obliged to respond to the crime of assassinating Abu el-Atta and it is considered a declaration of war on our Palestinian people."

The Israeli airstrikes on eastern Gaza city coincided with another Israeli airstrike that targeted the house of Akram Ajouri, a member of the Islamic Jihad politburo, in Syrian capital Damascus. His son and his bodyguard were killed in the Israeli attack.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority and all Palestinian factions condemned Israel's killing of Abu el-Atta and his wife.

Thousands of outraged Palestinian mourners on Tuesday afternoon buried the bodies of Abu el-Atta and his wife amid calls for revenge. Islamic Jihad militants fired gunshots into the air as a salute to the senior leader during the burial.