Death toll hits 43 as Israeli jets pound Gaza
Flames erupt from a building hit by an Israeli air strike on July 9, 2014 in Gaza City. Fifteen women and children were among 22 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza today, hiking the overall death toll to 43 in two days, the emergency services said. AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEX
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- In the same area, an Israel missile killed two men in a field near Nusseirat refugee camp. Medics named them as Abdel Nasser Abu Kweik, 60, and his son Khaled, 31.
GAZA CITY, Wednesday
Fifteen women and children were among 22 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza today, hiking the overall death toll to 43 in two days, the emergency services said.
More than 370 people have been wounded. Among the dead was at least one militant, as well as nine children and six women, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
It was not immediately clear whether the other fatalities were civilians or militants.
“In at least four of the strikes, the victims were all woman and children’’ ambulance service said.
During the afternoon, a missile struck a house in Al-Maghazi, a beachside refugee camp near Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, killing a mother and her four children, Qudra said.
Earlier, another two women and four children died in a series of raids to the north and east of Gaza City.
Mohammed Aarif, 13, and his brother, Amir, 12 were killed in an air strike on Shejaiya, east of Gaza City, while an attack in nearby Zeitun district killed Amina Malaka, 27, and her 18-month-old son Mohammed, he said.
Further north, another missile hit Beit Hanun, killing 40-year-old Sahar al-Masri and her 14-year-old son Ibrahim, he added.
Levelled a house
An attack shortly after midnight levelled a house in the northern town of Beit Hanun, killing Hafez Hammad, a senior Islamic Jihad commander, and five relatives, including two women and a 16-year-old girl.
In Mughraqa in central Gaza, medics retrieved the body of 80-year-old Naifeh Farajallah from the rubble of her house damaged in an earlier air strike.
In the same area, an Israel missile killed two men in a field near Nusseirat refugee camp. Medics named them as Abdel Nasser Abu Kweik, 60, and his son Khaled, 31.
Elsewhere, a 30-year-old man was killed in a pre-dawn strike on the southern city of Rafah.
And in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, a missile struck a motorcycle leaving a 30-year-old man clinically dead and severely wounding a second person.
Since the start of Operation Protective Edge early Tuesday, Israeli warplanes have struck 550 targets in Gaza. (AFP)
