GAZA, December 18 (RIA Novosti) - Over 10,000 Palestinians attended the funeral of a top Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, killed along with other gunmen in overnight Israeli air strikes.

Majed al-Harazin, 38, a Jihad Al-Quds Brigades senior commander, was killed on Monday when an Israeli warplane missile targeted his car, west of Gaza.

The death of Harazin, the most senior Palestinian militant leader to be killed in recent months, was hailed by Israeli officials, who considered him to have been behind rocket attacks launched from north Gaza towards the western Negev area, in south Israel.

The attack on the Palestinian top militant was the first in a series of four Israeli raids that has killed at least 13 militants in Gaza in the last 24 hours.

The Islamic Jihad said it would "respond to this grave Israeli crime over the course of the next following days."