Six children killed in Palestine, as Israel says operation will continue ‘as long as necessary’

A sixth Palestinian child has been killed as Israel’s escalating cross-border conflict with militant group Islamic Jihad entered a third day on Sunday with the death of a second senior commander in Gaza.

The conflict, which marks the worst violence between Israel and Palestine since an 11-day war in 2021, has killed 31 people, including six children since Israel unleashed a wave of air attacks on Gaza on Friday.

Israel’s “preemptive” operation against Islamic Jihad (PIJ) could last for up to a week, authorities warned. Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defence Minister Benny Gantz released coordinated statements on Sunday to say that the operation "will continue as long as necessary" after PIJ confirmed the death of a second of their senior commanders in two days.

According to Hamas, the group that controls the Gaza Strip, the strike that killed Khaled Mansour on Saturday night also killed at least four children as it hit a crowded refugee camp.

Israel has kept the crossing points for the blockaded territory closed since Tuesday, leaving the only power plant in the Gaza Strip to run out of fuel on Saturday afternoon.

Health authorities in Gaza are appealing for help from the international community as they try to treat the wounded amid severe fuel shortages that are leading to increased power cuts.

Medhat Abbas, the director of the ministry of health in Gaza told Al Jazeera that the electricity is now down to four hours per day.

According to preliminary statistics released by authorities in Gaza, the Israeli attacks have damaged 650 housing units and rendered 30 uninhabitable. Palestinian rocket fire has also caused property damage in Israel.

Air raid sirens played out across Jerusalem on Sunday morning for the first time since last year’s conflict with Hamas, who until now has mostly stayed on the sidelines of the current conflict.

The Israeli Prime Minister, who launched the high stakes attack just three months before elections, has not provided any evidence of the “imminent” attack that authorities believed was coming.

Some twenty members of PIJ were also arrested last night in sweeping raids across the West Bank, the Israeli army said.