Official: 20 killed by Israeli strikes since truce collapsed

Palestinian rescuers clear the rubble of a destroyed house following
an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Aug. 19, 2014
(AFP Mohammed Abed)

Source: http://www.maannews.net

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Renewed Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 20 Palestinians since a temporary ceasefire collapsed on Tuesday, a health ministry spokesman said Wednesday.

Ashraf al-Qidra said that Zaki Suleiman al-Rai, 54, died from wounds sustained early Wednesday.

The bodies of Mustafa Rabah al-Dalou, 14 and Wafaa Hussein al-Dalou were also recovered from the wreckage of the al-Dalou family home in Gaza City.

Earlier, a two-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in Israeli shelling on the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, al-Qidra said.

She was identified as Nour Muhammad Abu Hasirah.

Before that, al-Qidra said an Israeli airstrike killed an unidentified man near the al-Maqusi residential buildings in western Gaza City. The man’s body was taken to Shifa hospital.

Al-Qidra added that civil defense rescue teams had recovered the bodies of a woman and a child from the rubble of the al-Dalou family home in Sheikh Radwan, which was hit by five Israeli missiles.

The wife and daughter of al-Qassam Brigades commander Muhammad Deif were killed in the attack, Hamas says, along with four-year-old Ahmad al-Dalou.

A 24-hour truce due to last until midnight collapsed late Tuesday afternoon when Israel said rockets fired from the Strip hit Beersheba. Hamas denied firing the rockets.

An Israeli army statement said that 117 rockets had been fired at Israel from Gaza since the truce collapsed.

One of them hit a home in Ashkelon without causing injuries, it said.

Earlier, the army said it had struck “some 60 terror sites” in Gaza overnight, in addition to targeting “two terrorists … in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Over 2,000 Palestinians — the vast majority of them civilians — have been killed throughout Israel’s offensive on Gaza.

Sixty-seven people have been killed on the Israeli side, 64 of them soldiers.