13 killed, including women and children, in Israeli shelling on Gaza
Thirteen Palestinians, including women and children, and three Islamic Jihad military commanders were killed on Tuesday in a series of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip, raising fears of a new escalation, while the group vowed to respond.
The military operation in Gaza came after a series of security tensions over the past weeks, the latest of which was an escalation between Israel and Islamic Jihad less than a week ago, which ended with a truce after external interventions.
The Ministry of Health in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip announced that 13 people were killed and about 20 others were wounded as a result of the Israeli targeting of the Strip, and the ministry said that there were women and children among the victims, and that among the injured were critical cases.
Israeli military spokesman Richard Hecht said forty planes had taken part in the Israeli raids, adding: "We achieved what we wanted to achieve."
Among the dead was the chairman of Al-Wafa Hospital, Dr. Jamal Khaswan, who also holds Russian citizenship, and was killed along with his wife and son, the Ministry of Health announced, while the Russian Federation Representation in Palestine expressed regret.
Funerals for the dead, attended by thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, took place this afternoon, according to AFP correspondents.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, condemned the killing of civilians in Israeli air strikes, saying that "this is unacceptable."
The League of Arab States condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the League of Arab States stressed in a statement that this dangerous escalation comes within the framework of the open war waged by the Israeli Government against the Palestinian people, their properties and holy sites.
The Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jassim Mohammed Al-Budaiwi, condemned the Israeli escalation in the Gaza Strip, expressing his strong condemnation of the acts of violence, which are a flagrant violation carried out by the occupation authorities, calling on the international community to assume its responsibilities to end the Israeli occupation and stop its aggressive practices that would obstruct the paths of political solutions based on the Arab Peace Initiative and undermine international peace efforts.