Israeli warplanes have bombed the Gaza Strip, killing three senior Islamic Jihad commanders, according to Palestinian officials. In total nine people were killed, the territory’s health ministry said, writes The Guardian.

The Israeli military said it targeted three Islamic Jihad leaders. Two Islamic Jihad sources confirmed the deaths, Reuters reported.

Witnesses said an explosion hit the top floor of an apartment building in Gaza City and a house in the southern city of Rafah early on Tuesday morning. Airstrikes continued in the early hours targeting militant training sites, Associated Press reported. Women and children were among the dead, the health ministry said.

The Israeli army identified the three Islamic Jihad leaders it targeted as Jihad Ghannam and Khalil Al-Bahtani in the Gaza Strip and Tareq Ezzdine in the West Bank. In Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, an Agence France-Presse photographer saw the body of a man identified as Ghannam.

The airstrikes, which began a little after 2am local time, were still going nearly two hours later, according to AFP journalists, with a new explosion heard in the east.