Russian nationals are included in victims of Israeli airstrikes in Gazaaccording to the Russian mission in the West Bank.

Among the dead are dentist Jamal Haswan, his wife and son, the mission tweeted.

Israel carried out a series of airstrikes in the Gaza Strip overnight as part of an operation targeting three senior members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad.

According to Palestinian sources, 13 people were killed, including four women and four children.

Reports from the Palestinian side say that the dentist lived with his family in the house next door to that of the Palestinian gunman who was killed.

Israeli army spokesman Richard Hecht said information about the deaths of women and children was being investigated.

For his part, the UN envoy for the Middle East, Tor Wensland, described the civilian deaths as “unacceptable”.

“I call on all sides involved to exercise maximum restraint and avoid escalation. I remain fully engaged with all sides in an effort to avoid a wider conflict with disastrous consequences for all,” he said in a statement.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist movement that Israel describes as a “terrorist” organization, confirmed in a statement the death of three Al-Quds Brigades officers.

He named them as Jihad Ghannam, secretary of the military council of the Al-Quds Brigades in the Gaza Strip; Khalil al-Bakhtani, a member of the same council and commander of the Brigades in the northern sector of the enclave; and Tarek Ezzedine, one of its “head of military action” movement in the occupied West Bank, which he coordinated from the Gaza Strip.