19th July, 2014
Israeli air strikes and shelling killed more than 25 people across Gaza on Saturday, among them children, raising the toll in 12 days of violence to 337, medics said.
The latest deaths included a 20-year-old man in southern Gaza’s Khan Yunis, and a 16-year-old killed in Rafah, also in southern Gaza, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Another two men were killed east of Deir al-Balah, he added.
Their deaths followed those of five members of the Zuweidi family, including two girls aged two and six years old, in Gaza’s northern Beit Hanun.
Four men were also killed in two separate air strikes in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, Qudra added, along with one person killed in the Qarara district of southern Khan Yunis.
Another three men were killed in an air strike in central Gaza, he added.
The new deaths raised the toll in Gaza on the 12th day of violence between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas to 337 people.
Earlier, Qudra also reported five bodies had been pulled from a home hit by an Israeli air strike in Khan Yunis.
Two Israeli civilians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the campaign started on July 8, and several wounded.
The soldier was killed by friendly fire, the army told Israeli media.
Some 2,385 Palestinians have been wounded, Qudra said.
Operation Protective Edge is the bloodiest conflict in the besieged coastal enclave since 2009.
Israel launched its ground offensive late Thursday, starting a new phase in the operation which it said was aimed at destroying tunnels used by the territory’s dominant power, Islamist movement Hamas.