Gaza City - A senior Hamas leader, his wife and his eight children were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip Thursday, hospital officials confirmed.

Nizar Rayan and his family were killed when his house was struck in the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jabaliya, Kamal Odwan hospital in the refugee camp confirmed.

He was the most senior Hamas leader killed so far in six days of ferocious Israeli airstrikes. Most top leaders of the movement have gone into hiding.

Rayan, in his 50s, was a senior political leader of Hamas in the north of the strip, but also close to the movement's armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades. He led the al-Qassam Brigades and the Palestinian resistance during several Israeli military ground incursions into the strip in the past.

An Israeli military spokeswoman could not immediately confirm he was the target of the strike, but said the Israel Air Force had hit several buildings in Jabaliya used by Hamas for storing rockets. (dpa)