ISRAEL sparked a new wave of bloodletting in Gaza today with a pre-dawn air strike that killed an Islamic Jihad commander and his wife.

Bahaa Abu el-Atta and his wife Asmaa were killed in the bombing. Four of their children and a neighbour were taken to hospital.

Israel also fired three missiles at a house in the Syrian capital Damascus belonging to another Islamic Jihad leader, Akram al-Ajouri. Mr Ajouri was not hurt but his son was killed, alongside a man identified as Abdullah Yousef Hassan, in what the Syrian government called “a heinous act.”