Nine killed as Israel escalates air-ground military actions in Gaza

The Israeli army escalated on Thursday and Friday its military air and ground actions against the Gaza Strip, leaving nine Palestinians dead, including two children.

Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said that an Israeli army aircraft targeted a house in eastern Gaza City on Thursday night, killing three Palestinians, including a father and his 2-year-old baby girl, and wounded nine others, said Palestinian medics.

Eyewitnesses said that the house, which is located in Sheja'eya neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, belongs to Ashraf Ferwanah, a Hamas activist and a member in the Islamic Resistance Movement ( Hamas)-led Interior Ministry's auxiliary force.

Ashraf survived death, but his brother and two of his neighbors, a father and his baby girl, were killed, said the eyewitnesses, adding that nine other civilians were also injured, two are in serious conditions.

Later in the night, Israeli helicopters destroyed by two missiles a house, owned by the family of a female Hamas militant in Gaza City, according to Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses.

The sources said the house belongs to Salleh Reyashi, the father of Reem Reyashi, mother of two children that was killed in a suicide bombing attack two years ago into Erez Crossing on the borders between Gaza Strip and Israel.

Reyashi owns a factory that produces cars batteries. The factory and the house had been hit and destroyed one and a half year ago. Reyashi rebuilt the house recently, but it was attacked again on Thursday night.

Early on Thursday morning, an Israeli army force backed by aircrafts, tanks and armored vehicles stormed into the town of Abbassan, east of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.

An Israeli aircraft fired one missile during the operation at a group of Hamas militants, leaving six killed and seven wounded.

The six killed included three militants, two civilian adults and a child, said the sources.

Source: Xinhua