Nine people were killed in the early hours of today in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, according to the Ministry of Health of the blockaded coastal Palestinian enclave under the control of the Islamist movement Hamas.

For its part, the Israeli army said it carried out strikes against “targets” belonging to “Palestinian Islamic Jihad”, without going into details.

In Gaza, an AFP journalist saw the highest part of a block of flats in flames after the overnight strikes and ambulances were taking victims to hospitals.

Sources close to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement told Reuters news agency that Jihad Ghannam and his wife were among the dead. He is said to have been a senior member of the armed wing of this movement.

A Reuters news agency reporter earlier reported hearing at least two explosions in the blockaded coastal Palestinian enclave ruled by the Islamist group Hamas, one in Gaza City and another in Rafah.