SDEROT: Israeli soldiers walking next to armoured vehicles near the border with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday — AFP GAZA, Nov 13 (Reuters): Israeli air strikes killed nine Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, medical officials said, raising the Palestinian death toll to 19 over a two-day escalation in violence since Israel launched strikes to kill an Islamic Jihad commander.
From early morning Gaza militants fired rockets into Israel and the Israeli military struck from the air, resuming after an overnight lull.
The bodies of six people killed in Gaza City were brought into Shifa hospital in taxis and ambulances early Wednesday, as relatives wept and screamed. Medics and witnesses said they were civilians who lived in densely populated neighbourhoods.
A father and his son were among the dead with another son badly wounded, said family members.
"They started this, we did not want war," said one grieving relative.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had resumed attacking Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip. Air strikes took out at least three rocket launching crews, a military spokesman said.
Islamic Jihad confirmed that two of its militants were killed in separate strikes south of Gaza City during the morning. Medics later said another man was killed by an air strike while on a motorcycle.
The worst fighting in months erupted on Tuesday after Israel killed Abu Al-Atta, a senior commander of the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad militant group, accusing him of masterminding and planning attacks against Israel.
In response to the killing of Atta and his wife, Islamic Jihad fired about 200 rockets into Israel on Tuesday, resuming on Wednesday morning.
Despite attempts by diplomats to restore calm, an Islamic Jihad official told Reuters that his group told mediators it intended to carry on its retaliatory attacks.
© 2024 - All Rights with The Financial Express
