Israel has vowed to continue bombing Gaza as long as rockets continue to be fired at them, with no prospect of a truce in the immediate term despite hopes for an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
One Israeli has been killed and five wounded in a missile strike launched from Gaza on the central Israeli town of Rehovot on Thursday evening.
It is the first Israeli fatality since the latest round of violence started and could bring about an escalation in this conflict.
The Israeli military says it is “trying to understand” how the missile evaded the Iron Dome defence system.
Twenty-eight Gazans have been killed in the violence, 14 of them Islamic Jihad militants including senior commanders.
Almost 600 rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel in the last 48 hours, many of them landing short, within Gazan territory.
Earlier on Thursday Israeli forces killed two more senior Islamic Jihad commanders. The first, the head of the group’s rocket brigade, was killed in a missile strike overnight.
Later in on Thursday afternoon his deputy was killed in a direct hit on an apartment building near Khan Younis.
In a statement on Thursday evening, Islamic Jihad vowed to fight on, saying it would “continue to respond to the targeted assassinations with rocket barrages”.
“The assassinations of our commanders only encourages the combatants to continue in the struggle and fight the enemy,” it said.
For its part, Israel has said it will continue to bomb Gaza as long as rockets continue to be fired at them.