Zimpapers Logo

GAZA. — A four-year-old child was one of two people killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza yesterday, medics said, hiking the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 21-day operation to 1 037.
According to emergency services spokesperson Ashraf Qudra, four-year-old Samih Ijneid was killed when a shell hit a house to the east of Jabaliya where clashes had recently erupted between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

The shelling also killed a second person in the same area, he said.
The deadly shelling came as both sides observed an unofficial lull in the fighting as Muslims began marking the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.

Earlier yesterday, another three people succumbed to their injuries, raising the day’s toll to five, Qudra said. More than 6 200 Palestinians have been injured in the ongoing violence which began with an intensive air campaign on July 8 and expanded when Israel sent ground troops into the Gaza periphery on July 17.

Figures released on Sunday by the UN humanitarian agency OCHA give a figure of 999 dead, including at least 760 civilians, among them 226 children.
Of the 6 233 injured, 1 949 were children, it said.

OCHA also said 215 000 Palestinians had been internally displaced by the on-going fighting, with the UN agency for refugees saying 170 461 of them had taken refuge in 82 of its shelters. The rest were staying with relatives or friends.

The conflict has also cost the lives of 43 Israeli soldiers, all of whom were killed since the ground operation began, as well as two civilians and a Thai agricultural worker who were killed by rocket fire.

Since Israel began Operation Protective Edge on July 8, the Israeli army says it has attacked 3 870 targets in Gaza, and militants have fired approximately 2 000 rockets which hit Israel, with around 500 shot down by its missile defence system, Iron Dome.

Since midnight, only one rocket has struck Israel, hitting the southern city of Ashkelon without causing injury or damage, a military spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi has praised the Palestinian “resistance” over the 21-day conflict with Israel in Gaza that has killed more than 1 030 people, mostly Palestinian civilians.

Under Morsi’s rule, Egypt brokered a truce in 2012 between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip, after they fought a similar deadly war. Hamas is an offshoot of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group.

“Our compass is set on supporting Palestine against the usurping occupier and we are with any resistance against any occupier,” Morsi said in a message posted on his official Facebook page late on Sunday. — AFP/HR.