Rockets launch from Gaza after Israeli strikes

STORY: The Israeli military said aircraft struck Islamic Jihad command centers and rocket launchers in pre-dawn operations in Gaza.

A few hours later Gaza militants fired rockets, setting off sirens and sending Israelis in border communities running to bomb shelters. There were no reports of casualties inside Israel.

Six top Islamic Jihad commanders have been killed since Tuesday (May 9), when Israeli forces launched a campaign against the group, which it said was planning attacks.

Islamic Jihad, the largest armed group in Gaza after the ruling Islamist Hamas, has since fired more than 1,000 rockets, some deep into Israel. One woman was killed on Thursday (May 11) when an apartment was struck in a Tel Aviv suburb.

At least four women and six children have died in densely populated Gaza, an impoverished coastal territory blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007. Israel says four Palestinians were killed by misfired Gaza rockets, which Islamic Jihad has denied.

Islamic Jihad spurns coexistence with Israel and preaches its destruction. Top ministers of Israel's religious nationalist government rule out any state sought by Palestinians in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.