Israel steps up offensive in Gaza
Israel pressed forward with a stepped-up offensive in the Gaza Strip today, killing at least four people in two attacks in the coastal area.
The fighting brought the death toll in the offensive to 13 Palestinians, including a young girl, since Thursday.
The army has been operating throughout Gaza since June, when militants linked to the ruling Hamas group tunnelled into Israel and captured an Israeli soldier. The soldier remains in captivity.
After a recent lull, the fighting has picked up in recent days. Israel TV said the current operation in Gaza was the largest there in weeks.
In today’s fighting, an Israeli aircraft attacked a car in the northern Gaza Strip, killing three Hamas militants, including a local commander, the group said. Witnesses said the force of the blast ripped the car in two.
The army confirmed the strike, saying the occupants were on their way to fire homemade rockets at Israel. The same cell had fired rockets into Israel yesterday, military officials said.
In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli troops shot a 29-year-old woman outside her house in the village of Abassan, Palestinian hospital officials said.
The army said it had no information about a woman being shot. It reported killing an armed militant and wounding another in the same area around the same time.
The latest Israeli activity has been focused in the Abassan area, near the southern city of Khan Younis. An Israeli airstrike yesterday killed six people, including two teenage civilians.
Meanwhile, a separate airstrike targeting the house of a Hamas commander in Gaza City killed three people yesterday evening, including a girl of about 10 years old.
Seven people were wounded, including children, doctors said. The Israeli military said the owner of the house, Ashraf Farawana, is a Hamas leader who was involved in attacks against Israel and supplying weapons to Hamas militants.
Shortly after that strike, Palestinian militants fired a rocket from Gaza at the Israeli town of Sderot, a town just outside the border fence that has been a frequent target of Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza. The rocket struck an electricity pylon, blacking out parts of the town and slightly injuring two people. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
Also today, a 14-year-old bystander was killed when supporters of Hamas and the opposition Fatah group clashed in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. In addition to the boy, eight other people were injured.
In the West Bank, Palestinians trying to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers clashed with police and soldiers at five Israeli checkpoints around the city. The protesters had hoped to attend weekly prayers at the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, during the Ramadan holy month.
Israel does not allow Palestinian men under 40 to attend the Ramadan prayers, citing security concerns. Younger men angry about not being allowed into the city threw stones at troops, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
Paramilitary border policemen made six arrests and dispersed crowds with stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets, Ben-Ruby said. No injuries were reported.
