GAZA CITY (Agencies) -- Israeli launched an assault on the Islamic Jihad organization from the skies over Gaza, killing the group’s overall commander and twelve other Jihad and Hamas activists in three brutal strikes ending early Tuesday morning.

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza took to the streets in funeral processions for the martyred Jihad and Hamas activists, whose bodies and coffins were draped with black Islamic Jihad flags and green Hamas flags.
Four of the Islamic Jihad members were targeted as they emerged from morning prayers Tuesday at a northern Gaza mosque. Six others were martyred when Israeli aircraft blasted two cars in Gaza City after nightfall Monday.
“There is no doubt that this is a big loss,” Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza, told The Associated Press.
The deadly strikes against Islamic Jihad are part of a stepped-up Israeli offensive against Gazans.
“I’m very pleased with our achievements last night,” Matan Vilnai, Israel’s deputy defense minister, told Army Radio on Tuesday morning.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said that in addition to targeting Israeli civilians those behind the rocket attacks also were seeking to sabotage the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“Obviously we have to act to protect our people,” he said. “These extremists don’t want to just kill innocent civilians they want to kill the peace process, they’re the enemies of everyone who wants to see this peace process move forward.”
Islamic Jihad spokesman Khaled el-Batch confirmed that Harazin was martyred. The group said he was its top commander for the West Bank and Gaza, and he rarely traveled in vehicles for fear of an Israeli airstrike.
Another activist was also martyred and a third critically wounded in the airstrike, hospital officials said.
Islamic Jihad supporters gathered around the morgue and pledged revenge.
“The blood of our comrades will be the fuel for the rockets that will bring death and destruction to the Zionists,” another Islamic Jihad spokesman, Abu Hamza, told The Associated Press.
In the second airstrike, shortly before midnight, the Israeli military said “four militants were killed.” The third strike, early Tuesday, martyred four more of the group’s men. Four civilians were wounded, medical officials said.
The attack on a Hamas security post in the southern town of Rafah killed two members of Hamas’ security force, Hamas said..