Update: 13 Palestinians, including 4 children, killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

13 Palestinians, including four children and four women, were killed and 20 others injured in a series of brutal Israeli airstrikes which targeted several houses, locations, and residential buildings in the besieged Gaza Strip, earlier on Tuesday.

At about 2 am local time on Tuesday (23:00 GMT Monday), Israeli occupation launched a series of airstrikes that targeted residential apartments and houses, killing 13, including three members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group, Jihad al-Ghannam, Khalil al-Bahtini, and Tariq Izz al-Deen.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed that 13 people were killed and 20 injured.

The PIJ has announced that three of its leaders were killed in the Israeli attack along with their wives and several children.

The Israeli military said the air raids, codenamed “Operation Shield and Arrow”, targeted three Palestinian Islamic Jihad members who it claimed were responsible for recent rockets fired towards ‘Israel’.