By: Andrew Tan

Israel has killed a second top militant from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group as the death toll continues to rise due to air strikes in Gaza.

Nearly 600 Palestinian rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel from PIJ since Friday. The latest violence was the 11-day conflict in May 2021 that left more than 200 Palestinians and a dozen Israelis dead.

On Sunday, Jerusalem was hit by rockets sent from the Gaza strip for the first time since the 2021 conflict. These attacks were after Israel killed senior PIJ leader Khaled Mansour in an air strike. The commander had survived five assassination attempts by the Israeli military.

In November 2019, Israel and PIJ fought a five-day conflict following the killing by Israel of a PIJ commander who had been planning to attack them. This attack led to 34 PIJs dead and 111 injured, while 63 Israelis needed medical treatment.