GAZA, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- At least three Palestinians, including a senior Islamic Jihad militant and his wife, were killed and 18 others injured on Tuesday in a series of intensive Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, medics said.

One Palestinian was killed by an Israeli missile that had directly hit him while he was driving a motorbike in northern Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in Gaza said in a press statement.

The statement said that 18 others, most of whom are civilians, were injured in the intensive Israeli airstrikes all over the Gaza Strip, adding that three of them are in serious condition.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement said in an official statement that Baha Abu al-Atta, a senior militant and leader of al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip, was killed together with his wife.

Israeli warplanes struck the house of Abu al-Atta in al-Shejaiya neighborhood in eastern Gaza city, where he and his wife were killed. Another two Palestinians in the neighborhood were injured.

Mosab al-Briem, Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza, said that "the Palestinian resistance is obliged to respond to the crime of assassinating Abu al-Atta and it is considered a declaration of war on our Palestinian people."

Hamas spokesman in Gaza Hazem Qassem said in a press statement that the response to the crime of murdering Baha Abu al-Atta begun this morning and it is still going on.

The airstrike in eastern Gaza city coincided with another Israeli airstrike that targeted the house of Akram Ajjouri, a member of the Islamic Jihad politburo in Syria. His son and his bodyguard were killed in the Israeli attack.

The group did not say if Ajjouri had survived or got killed.

The Israeli killing of Baha Abu al-Atta and his wife was largely condemned by several Palestinian factions and political powers in the Palestinian territories.

Islamic Hamas movement, the factions of Palestine Liberation Organization and the government of the Palestinian Authority condemned the killing of the man and his wife.