Rockets fired from Gaza after Israel's air raids kill commanders and children

Video footage captures the aftermath of Israel's Iron Dome rocket interception system destroying a missile over Tel Aviv after it was fired from Gaza (Credit: ITV News/John Irvine)

For the first time in months, air raid sirens sounded over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Wednesday afternoon.

The cause was volleys of rocket fire from Gaza - 50 miles to the south.

Israel was bracing for retaliatory fire following its assassination of three Islamic Jihad commanders in air strikes on their Gaza homes, on Tuesday.

Up to a dozen civilians were also killed in those raids - eight women and children among them.

The Israeli Defence Forces had positioned highly effective batteries of the Iron Dome rocket interception system close to Gaza in anticipation, but Islamic Jihad fired enough rockets for some to get through and threaten Tel Aviv.

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It's believed up to 300 rockets have been fired so far - 100 or so landed in Gaza.

Iron Dome is intelligent enough to ignore rockets on a trajectory to land harmlessly - it takes out 90% of those it fires on.

It's the Israeli communities close to Gaza that are the most vulnerable, and the closest of all, Sderot, was hit by at least one rocket. There are no reports of any injuries.

Where this latest flare-up goes isn't clear, but 2023 is already one of the deadliest years in a couple of decades.

Egyptian mediators often manage to calm things down, but with Islamic Jihad - a group committed to Israel's destruction - on one side and the most hawkish Israeli government in the country's history on the other, those negotiators have their work cut out.

Violence in Tel Aviv leaves three dead and at least seven wounded

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