Three children were among the 7 Palestinians killed by Israeli air attacks on the Gaza Strip on Monday as the latest escalation between the sides entered its fourth day. The latest fatalities – two members of the Islamic Jihad – occurred Monday night local time, when the Israel Air Force (IAF) struck al-Nazaz Street in the Sheja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City. Their deaths brought to 25 the number of Palestinians killed since the latest violence erupted on Friday. Palestinians are growing weary of the attacks, claiming that no missiles by Islamic groups in the area deserve this response. “It is like hitting a mosquito who bites you with a house. What did we the people do right now? This is our home, where can we go?” Palestinian farmer from Khan Yunis asked in a phone interview on Tuesday early morning. Media are reporting the majority of the Palestinians killed were militants, but earlier Monday Palestinian witnesses said a 16-year-old was killed by an Israeli drone missile in Beit Lahia in northern Gaza while he was playing with a rocket launcher. Palestinians dispute the claim that most of those killed are not militants. “Everyone is a militant to Israel it seems,” added the farmer. The Israeli military disputed the claim, saying no airstrikes were carried out in the area at the time the incident was reported. A separate Israeli airstrike in Jabalia killed a father and his daughter, Palestinians said. And an Israeli airstrike on the Jabilia refugee camp in the north of the coastal enclave killed two Islamic Jihad militants from the Islamic Jihad, German press agency dpa reported. Palestinian militants, meanwhile launched close to 60 rockets at Israel Monday, causing no fatalities, but injuring an elderly woman, and sending several people into shock. The violence erupted on Friday when Zohair al-Qaisi, the secretary-general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) militant group, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. Israel said he had planned attacks against Israel targets from Egypt's Sinai peninsular. Palestinian militants have fired over 200 rockets toward Israel since Friday, forcing around 1 million Israelis into bomb shelters, and the IAF has responded with a series of air strikes. No Israel citizen has been injured, and few reports of rockets reaching populated areas inside Israel have been confirmed. A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad said the group would continue to fire rockets and rejected any “unfair Israeli-conditioned truce.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his right-leaning Likud party that Israel would expand its military operations if rocket attacks continued, despite the reality that Israel began the violence and is perpetuating it with air strikes. Israel holds the Palestinian group Hamas, which controls Gaza, responsible for the rocket attacks. Israel's Iron Dome short-range missile defence system has shot down over 50 Russian-type Grad rockets fired at the cities of Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod. One rocket exploded on the outskirts of the city of Gedera, some 35 kilometres from Gaza, the furthest north the rockets have struck since Friday. Two rockets also exploded in a nursery and a kindergarten in the town of Sderot, just over two kilometres from the border with Gaza. The town had been evacuated earlier. Public buildings in Israeli communities within a 4-kilometer radius of Gaza have been reinforced to shield off attacks and citizens evacuated if possible. Schools beyond that range were closed and some 200,000 children were told to stay at home. The Israeli military has installed three Iron Dome batteries near major cities in the south. The system, which was introduced a year ago, has been hailed a success with an interception rate of more than 80 percent so far. The violence is the worst since August, when militants from Gaza attacked vehicles on a road alongside the Israel-Egypt border, killing eight Israelis and triggering a wave of Israeli airstrikes and cross-border rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad accepted a truce after 8 days. ** with dpa BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/6oRv8 Tags: Attack, featured, Gaza, Israel, Violence Section: Features, Latest News, Palestine
