Seven Palestinians, two of them minors, have died in the last few hours in the Gaza Strip as a result of intense bombardments by Israeli aircraft, making a total of 22 fatalities (13 of them civilians) since the first attacks yesterday.
(In context: Israeli attacks in Gaza leave 15 dead, including 3 heads of Islamic Jihad)
Besides, about twenty people were injured in today’s bombardments, with which there are almost fifty since yesterday, according to the official count of the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
(You can read: International community calls for calm after escalation between Israelis and Palestinians)
After the “selective assassination” – as Israel describes it – of three senior officials of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (YIP) in Gaza, in bombardments that also killed a dozen civilians, Israel again attacked military targets of this group that it considers terroristto which the Palestinian militias in the strip have responded with the launch of 270 rockets.
A five-year-old boy was killed by Israeli missiles in a Bedouin village in northern Gaza and a ten-year-old girl was killed in Gaza City, bringing the number of minors killed since yesterday to 6.
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A 20-year-old civilian also died in the city of Gaza due to the bombardments of the Israeli Army, aimed at dismantling the military structure of the YIP, a group considered a terrorist by Israel, the USA, the European Union.
In Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, two other Gazans were killed; while two other men died in the city of Khan Younis, also to the south, one of them after succumbing to shrapnel wounds suffered in yesterday’s shelling.
After confusing reports as to whether or not these four men were militiamen, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine confirmed that the four were members of its ranks.
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The Israeli Army continued to bombard YIP targets in the Strip on Wednesday and attacked some 53 positions of that group, including 40 rocket launchers, according to a military spokesman.
Israeli aircraft yesterday killed Jalil Bahitini, Tareq Az Aldin and Jahed Ahnam, the three main JIP leaders in Gaza in intense simultaneous bombardments that also killed ten civilians, including their wives and children, as well as two other militiamen in a subsequent attack, a total of 15 people.
(We recommend reading: Bombing leaves at least 13 dead in the Gaza Strip)
The Chamber of Joint Military Operations, which brings together the Palestinian armed factions in Gaza – including the JIP and the Islamist Hamas movement – warned shortly after that Israel “will pay the price for its aggression”, a response that came today with the launch of more than a hundred rockets into Israeli territory, which set off alarms in the south but also in the Tel Aviv area.
“The attacks of the unified resistance are part of the response process to the massacre committed by the Zionist occupation and are part of its defense of our Palestinian people. The resistance’s response is mandatory and constant against any aggression,” the spokesman said today. of Hamas in Gaza, Abd al-Latif al-Qanou, about this joint response that could lead to another war escalation.
EFE
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