Palestinian Islamic Jihad vows to hit Tel Aviv following attack on Gaza

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has threatened to strike Tel Aviv after Israeli forces hit targets in the besieged Gaza Strip which led to the death of one of their military commanders and a child.

Israeli forces hit targets in Gaza, the military said on Friday, after days of tension following the arrest of a Palestinian militant leader in the occupied West Bank.

Local officials reported casualties and television pictures showed smoke pouring from a building.

"The Zionist enemy started this aggression and it must expect us to fight non-stop... There will be no truce after this bombing," Ziad al-Nakhala told Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen television channel from Tehran, where he has been visiting in recent days.

"There are no red lines in this battle... Tel Aviv will also be one of the targets of the resistance's missiles... as will all Zionist cities," he said.

PIJ said on Friday it was mourning "the great jihadist commander Tayseer al-Jabari 'Abu Mahmud', who was killed in a Zionist assassination in Gaza City".

Tayseer is the cousin of Ahmed Al-Jabari, a high-level Hamas leader who was killed in Gaza by an Israeli drone in 2012.

"The [Israeli army] is currently striking in the Gaza Strip. A special situation has been declared on the Israeli home front," the Israeli military said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Gaza health ministry said there had been a number of casualties and a state of emergency had been declared.

Television pictures showed black smoke rising from the roof of a building in the heavily populated Sstrip.

Five Palestinians have so far been killed, including a child and PIJ militants, according to The New Arab's correspondent based in Gaza.

The latest strikes came after Israel arrested Bassam Al-Saadi, another senior PIJ figure, during a raid in the West Bank city of Jenin earlier this week.

It subsequently closed off all Gaza crossings and some nearby roads over fears of retaliatory attacks from the group, which has a stronghold in Gaza.

The tightening of Israel's blockade of Gaza, which began in 2007, could create further suffering for civilians in the already impoverished enclave.

"The enemy has begun a war against our people and against us and we will defend ourselves and our people," PIJ said in a statement.

(Reuters, The New Arab)