Fresh Israeli airstrikes hit southern, central Gaza

GAZA, Palestine Israel’s army on Sunday waged fresh airstrikes on various parts of the blockaded Gaza Strip for a third day straight. The strikes left at least four Palestinians wounded after an Israeli warplane struck a target near a house in the city of Khan Younis in the southern strip, eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency. The Israeli army, for its part, said in a statement that the warplane attacked a number of activists of the Islamic Jihad (resistance movement) who were in a “weapons warehouse” in the strip. Later Sunday, the Saraya al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, announced that four of its members had been martyred by two separate Israeli attacks in the central and eastern Gaza strip. Israeli warplanes also attacked another target in the vicinity of a house belonging to the Aql Palestinian family at the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the central strip, damaging the house, according to eyewitnesses. Since Saturday, at least 18 Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her infant child, were martyred and more than 100 others wounded by Israeli air strikes. The escalation in the Gaza Strip started when four Palestinians were martyred, including a teenager, and 51 wounded on Friday in Israeli army attacks on Hamas-affiliated sites and a separate attack on a rally against the decade-long occupation and siege of the Gaza strip. The Israeli assaults were met by Palestinian resistance factions launching 600 rockets towards Israeli settlements, killing three people, according to Israel. More than 80 Israelis have received treatment since Saturday from Palestinian rocket attacks, including 62 for panic attacks, Israel's Megan David Adom emergency services said earlier Sunday. Since Saturday, Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip have targeted at least 200 civilian sites including seven residential buildings. On Saturday, a building where Anadolu Agency’s office in Gaza was located was razed by Israeli warplanes. No deaths or injuries were reported in the attack.