AN ISRAELI air strike in Gaza killed at least seven innocent people in an attack targeted at three senior leaders of the Hamas military wing today.

The strike near Rafah was one of 20 the Israeli military said it carried out after midnight, killing a total of 26 Palestinians.

Hamas said three of its senior military leaders — Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Mohammed Barhoum and Raed al-Attar — had been killed along with seven other people in the Rafah raid.

Gaza police and medical officials estimated that scores more people remained under the rubble of houses destroyed in the air strike by multiple rockets — as many as nine projectiles, according to witnesses.

Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra put the number of those missing in the “dozens.”

Israeli security agency Shin Bet confirmed the deaths of Mr Shamaleh and Mr Attar, but did not mention Mr Barhoum.

Elsewhere, another Israeli air strike killed a 27-year-old man in central Gaza identified as Jomma Anwar Mayar, police said. 

Israel also hit smuggling tunnels along the Gaza border with Egypt and agricultural lands west of Rafah in the latest air strikes.

Israel claims that the attacks were in response to a resumption of Hamas rocket fire but was evidently not targeting rocket-launching sites, choosing to focus on hitting individuals indentified as leading Hamas members. 

On Wednesday, Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif had been the object of an assassination attempt that killed his wife and infant son.

Hamas officials announced that Mr Deif was not in the targeted home at the time and was still alive. 

He has survived multiple assassination attempts, lives in hiding and is believed to be paralysed from previous attempts on his life.

In a nationally televised address on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu showed no interest in returning to the negotiating table, preferring to carry on with the murderous attacks on Hamas leaders.

“We are determined to continue the campaign with all means and as is needed,” he said. 

“We will not stop until we guarantee full security and quiet for the residents of the south and all citizens of Israel.”