Seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli drone strikes on Gaza, medics said Monday, after militants fired dozens of rockets at southern Israel.
Gaza Strip health services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said two Palestinians were killed and two others wounded in the drone attack east of Rafah, in southern Gaza.
He later pronounced a third Palestinian who had been wounded in the attack dead.
Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, said meanwhile that six of their men were killed by the Israeli strike on Rafah.
Qudra did not confirm the Qassam statement. Witnesses said Qassam members were killed when a tunnel collapsed on them following the Israeli strike.
The Israeli army said it had “targeted nine terror sites and concealed rocket launchers across the Gaza Strip”, noting in a statement its attacks came after militants fired over 25 mortars and rockets at Israel on Sunday.
Late Sunday two other Palestinian militants were killed in an Israeli drone strike east of Bureij refugee camp, near central Gaza’s border with the Jewish state, emergency services said.
The Israeli army said it targeted “terrorists involved in rocket launching”.
Qudra also said five civilians were injured in Beit Hanun after a rocket fired by Gaza militants fell short of Israel.
The strikes come after the brutal murder of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khder on July 2 triggered four days of violent clashes that broke out in east Jerusalem and have spread throughout Arab towns in Israel. (AFP)
