Gaza: Sixth militant commander killed in Israeli air strike as

Israel has killed a sixth senior leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in an air strike in the Gaza Strip, as fighting between them escalates.

It said Iyad al-Hassani had directed the militant group's operations since his predecessor was killed on Tuesday.

Friday's strike, which medics said also killed another person, followed a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza, some of which reached near Jerusalem.

The chances of an imminent ceasefire being mediated by Egypt appear slim.

However, a Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC that Egyptian officials had presented a new proposal for a ceasefire on Friday evening and that they were waiting for Israel's response.

At least 33 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed - about half of them civilians - since Israel carried out a series of air strikes early on Tuesday that killed three top PIJ commanders, the Palestinian health ministry there says. Another 111 people have been wounded.

One Israeli civilian has been killed and five wounded by Palestinian rocket fire in the same period, Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service says.

PIJ is the biggest militant group after Hamas and is sworn to Israel's destruction.

The resumption of fighting on Friday came after 12 hours of relative calm, which gave rise to hopes for a ceasefire. The Israeli military said it carried out air strikes on military outposts and rocket launchers belonging to PIJ overnight, but there were no rocket attacks.

Around midday PIJ militants launched dozens of rockets. Some were aimed towards the Jerusalem area, about 75km (46 miles) from Gaza.

The Israeli military said two rockets heading to Jerusalem were intercepted, but another rocket reportedly landed near the Jewish settlement of Bat Ayin in the occupied West Bank, about 16km south of the city. No injuries were reported.

Rockets also hit two houses in the southern Israeli towns of Sderot and Nir Am, though without causing any injuries.

PIJ said "the firing of rockets at Jerusalem is a message, and everyone should understand its aim".

Jerusalem, which Israel considers its capital, is the most potent symbol and targeting it is meant to signal to the Israel that the PIJ is prepared to connect events in the city to its actions from Gaza.

It is the first time rockets have landed near there since a 10-day conflict between Israel and militants in Gaza in May 2021.

Israel responded to Friday's rocket fire with intensive air strikes.

Warplanes hit a multi-storey residential building in the northern Nasser area of Gaza City, killing two people and sparking a major fire. Five others were wounded, including a child, according to rescuers.

A PIJ spokesman confirmed the death of Iyad al-Hassani in the air strike, according to AFP news agency.

Sources said Hassani was deputy head of Islamic Jihad's armed wing and the most senior figure in the group to be targeted by Israel so far in the fighting.

Israel's air force said Hassani had replaced Khalil al-Bahtini, who was killed on Tuesday, as PIJ's "commanding officer of the operation in the Gaza Strip" and described him as a "significant figure".

The identity of the second person was not immediately clear, but the Israeli Air Force described them as a PIJ "operative".

An Israeli official told the BBC hitting the senior chain of command was also meant as a warning to Hamas, the dominant armed group in Gaza which so far is thought to have stayed on the sidelines of the current escalation.

More rockets were fired at southern Israeli communities following the strike and Israel said there was likely to be more long-range fire in response to what it called the "targeted killing" of Hassani.

This week's fighting is the heaviest since three days of hostilities between Israel and PIJ last August, in which 49 Palestinians were killed in Gaza.

The Israeli military says Bahtini and two other PIJ commanders were planning attacks when it targeted them on Tuesday. It killed two further commanders - the head of PIJ's rocket force and his deputy - in strikes on Thursday.

At least 937 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza over the past four days, with 761 crossing into Israeli territory, according to the IDF. Most have been intercepted or have landed in open areas, while 296 have fallen in Gaza.

The Israeli military says four people, including three children, have been killed in Gaza by failed rockets, though this has not been corroborated by Palestinian sources.

Israel says its strikes have hit 254 PIJ targets in Gaza. Gaza's housing ministry says 47 homes have been destroyed, 19 damaged so badly that they are uninhabitable, and almost 300 others partly damaged.

Meanwhile a British surgeon stranded in Gaza has told the BBC that more than 140 "desperately sick" patients there, most of whom have cancer, are being denied urgently-needed treatment while the crossing to Israel remains shut for a fourth day.

Professor Nick Maynard, a consultant surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals, said cancer patients were facing potentially life-threatening delays. Israel closed its main crossing that allows exit from Gaza on Tuesday.

"The doctors I work with here have got multiple examples of people who are in desperate need of cancer treatment," said Prof Maynard.

"These treatments are undoubtedly being delayed and potentially leading to deaths because of the delays now," he added.