On Tuesday evening, two more Palestinians were killed and two others injured in an Israeli strike on a car in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli military said that the passengers were members of an Islamic Jihad squad who were on their way to a launchpad and were carrying a number of anti-tank guided missiles.

Israel is now engaged in its third confrontation in 10 months with Islamic Jihad, a group that Israel, the United States and many other Western countries classify as a terrorist organization.

Israel’s operation against Islamic Jihad on Tuesday had taken some time to be carried out, officials said, as the military waited for the required intelligence and weather conditions.

They said that the decision to kill leaders of the group in Gaza was made on May 2, the day that Islamic Jihad fired more than a hundred rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel after the death in Israeli custody of a Palestinian hunger striker, Khader Adnan, who was protesting his detention. Mr. Adnan was an Islamic Jihad leader from the occupied West Bank.

This year has already proved to be the deadliest in more than two decades for Palestinians and Israelis. More than 110 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian officials, with most of the deaths coming in clashes during raids by Israeli forces. At least 19 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians.

Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting from Gaza City, Hiba Yazbek from Jerusalem and Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel.