Israelis Kill Hamas Military Commander in Gaza Palestinians extinguished a fire after an Israeli air strike on the car carrying Ahmed Al-Jaabari, who ran Hamas's military wing, on Wednesday in Gaza City. GAZA - An Israeli airstrike blew up a car carrying the commander of the Hamas military wing in Gaza on Wednesday, making him the most senior official of the group to be killed by the Israelis since their invasion of Gaza four years ago. The death of the commander, Ahmed al-Jabari, who was on Israel's most-wanted list of Palestinian militants, was confirmed by Hamas and Israeli officials. The Israeli military said it had ordered the airstrike in response to days of rocket fire launched from Gaza into Israeli territory. Hamas and medical officials in Gaza said Mr. Jabari and a companion were in his car in Gaza City when the airstrike took place. Israeli news media said the companion was Mr. Jabari's son, but there was no immediate confirmation. Mr. Jabari's death raised the prospect of further escalation in the renewed hostility between Israel and Hamas, the militant organization regarded by Israel as a terrorist group sworn to Israel's destruction. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that Mr. Jabari had been targeted because he "served in the upper echelon of the Hamas command and was directly responsible for executing terror attacks against the state of Israel in the past number of years." The statement said the purpose of the attack was to "severely impair the command and control chain of the Hamas leadership as well as its terrorist infrastructure." The statement did not specify how the Israelis knew Mr. Jabari was in the car but said the operation had been "implemented on the basis of concrete intelligence and using advanced capabilities." Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007, a year after the Israelis withdrew from the territory captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. But Israeli forces went back into Gaza in the winter of 2008-09 in response to what they called a terrorist campaign by Palestinian militants there to launch rockets into Israel. The three-week military campaign left hundreds of Palestinians dead. Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency, considered Mr. Jabari responsible for what it called "all anti-Israeli terror activity" emanating from Gaza. Israel had made at least one previous attempt to kill him. He was also known for personally escorting Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza, to Egyptian intermediaries last year as part of a prisoner exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Video of the handoff to Egypt showed Mr. Jabari standing near Mr. Shalit. Isabel Kershner contributed reporting from Jerusalem, and Rick Gladstone from New York.