Gaza militant group Islamic Jihad seeks to create a “balance of terror” with Israel, a senior member of its military wing has told AFP in an exclusive interview.

Speaking shortly after a truce ended a four-day flare-up in violence between Gaza militants and Israel, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigade hailed the fact that it forced “a million Israelis to hide in shelters”.

The leader, who goes by the nom-de-guerre of Abu Ibrahim, also warned that the Brigades possesses long-range weapons that could hit the Israeli city of Tel Aviv and could be used in its next conflict with the Jewish state.

“What we seek with our rockets is not to kill Israelis, but to maintain a balance of terror,” he said during the interview, which was conducted at a secret location, flanked by armed bodyguards.

“The fact that a million Israelis were stuck inside shelters and suffered as our people do is more important for us than deaths.”

The latest violence between Israel and Gaza militants began on March 9, when Israel’s assassinated the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees group.

In response, militants led by the Al-Quds Brigades fired a barrage of rockets into southern Israel over the course of four days, bringing life in much of the region to a standstill.

Israeli war planes carried out dozens of air strikes, killing 25 people, among them 14 members of Islamic Jihad.

Around 250 rockets were fired from Gaza, according to Israeli figures, with around 60 of them intercepted by the country’s Iron Dome missile defence system.

Authorities banned large gatherings in the area and closed schools during the outbreak of violence.

The rockets hit throughout southern Israel, with some reaching around 40 kilometres inside the country. One struck just north of Gedera, which is only about 25 kilometres from the centre of Tel Aviv, whose metropolitan area is home to nearly half the Jewish state’s population of 7.84 million.