JERUSALEM: Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed three senior Jihad commanders and at least nine civilians, including four children, on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, in an operation that drew an immediate threat of retaliation from the militant group.

The Palestinian Jihad movement announced that three of its leaders were killed in the air attacks. The commanders killed were Jihad Shaker Al-Ghannam, secretary of the Military Council in the al Quds Brigades; Khalil Salah al Bahtini, commander of the Northern Region in the al Quds Brigades; and Tariq Muhammad Ezzedine, one of the leaders of the military wing of the al Quds Brigades in the West Bank, the group said.

Israel officials are said to be preparing for days of fighting. The Israeli military said that in addition to targeting the three militants its aircraft struck 10 sites used to manufacture weapons and six Jihadi military facilities.

The air attacks, codenamed “Operation Shield and Arrow”, targeted three Palestinian Jihad members who it claimed were responsible for recent rockets fired towards Israel.

Palestinian Jihadists were behind recent rounds of rocket fire into Israel, some of which was sparked by the death in an Israeli prison of a Palestinian hunger striker.