Deadly Israeli shelling strikes Gaza City
Air strike kills one Palestinian, and Israeli troops open fire east of Gaza City, injuring at least three people.
A Palestinian man was killed and two other people were wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip, medics have said.
The attack targeted a training ground used by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, in the southeastern Zeitun neighbourhood of the city, they said. The three people have been identified as Hamas fighters.
Earlier on Thursday, three Palestinians were injured, one of them critically, when Israeli troops opened fire at an area east of Gaza City, medical sources said.
They said troops fired a tank shell near the Shejaiya neighbourhood, which lies close to the border with Israel, leaving one Palestinian in critical condition and two others wounded.
The military said artillery forces and aircraft had fired at “a Hamas terrorist squad”, but Palestinian sources could not confirm if they were fighters or civilians.
“The squad was in position to launch an anti-tank missile at IDF soldiers performing routine activity near the security fence. A hit was confirmed,” a statement said, referring to the Israel Defence Forces.
Unrest in and around Gaza flared up last month after a cross-border attack from Sinai which left an Israeli civilian dead.
In six days violence which began on June 18, Israel killed 15 Palestinians and injured dozens more, while Palestinian fighters fired more than 150 rockets at Israel, injuring five.