The Israel Air Force renewed air strikes in northern Gaza Strip on Friday morning after a bloody day of clashes that left at least 22 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier dead. Hamas confirmed so far six of its fighters died in the clashes.
The violence Thursday marked the heaviest day of fighting in the Gaza Strip in the past four years. After touring Gaza main hospital, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for international intervention to stop the Israeli offensive, which he called a "crime against humanity."
Haniyeh said the Israeli push was "a desperate effort to undermine the Palestinian government under the pretext of a search for the missing soldier." It should be noted that dozens of Palestinian casualties, including many wounded women and children, crowded the emergency rooms and corridors of Gaza hospitals, already suffering from shortages of medical supplies because of a closure Israel clamped on the territory.
A Friday morning air strike killed one Palestinian and wounded three others in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said. The Israeli army said an aircraft had opened fire on a group of four gunmen. One of them - a Hamas member - was killed. Three other Palestinians were killed in other incidents in the Strip. One of them was a 17 year-old Palestinian, who died in Jabalya. According to the report, the teen, Muataz Rafii, was an unarmed bystander.
In response, Palestinians fired at least eight rockets at Israeli targets, five of them hitting the town of Sderot. Three Sderot residents were lightly injured from shrapnel and four people went into shock, Israel Radio reported.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli forces killed another Palestinian.
