Cross-border fire exchange

Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip were exchanging fire yesterday in the worst bout of cross-border violence since an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas last year. Israeli air strikes have killed 11 people, including a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed militant group, who was slain in a targeted attack. That came following the arrest of another senior Islamic Jihad leader in the West Bank in what’s been a months-long Israeli operation to round up Palestinian attack suspects. Militants have fired dozens of rockets at Israeli cities and towns, disrupting life for tens of thousands of people.