Tel Aviv / PNN/

 Israel  has evacuated hundreds from border towns and warned settlers to stay close to bomb shelters as lamiIsc Jihad movement vowed to revenge for Israeli carnage in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In the early hours, Israel launched surprise airstrikes on several areas across Gaza, leaving 25 people killed, including three high-profile commanders of Saraya Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement, as well as their wives and children. Twenty people were also injured in the attacks.

Gaza-based Islamic Jihad was quick to strongly condemn the deadly raid as a "great and heinous crime." It also vowed, “a proportionate response whose details will be determined by the joint operations room of all factions.”

More than 2,000 settlers fled their homes in the Gaza border settlements for fear of rocket fire in response to the airstrikes, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, adding that municipalities were preparing to evacuate thousands more.

Israel's minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant also told leaders of local councils near the Gaza border that they "must be prepared for any scenario, including prolonged fighting" and an "expansion of the firing range" of rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.