GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Two new attacks in Gaza have pushed the Palestinian death toll above 1,300 in more than three weeks of fighting.
Israeli strikes today hit a crowded shopping area in Gaza City, where Palestinian officials say at least 16 people were killed and more than 200 wounded. Hours earlier, tank shells tore through the wall of a U.N. school that was crowded with war refugees, killing at least 17 people and wounding 90 others.
Israel says its soldiers had been targeted by mortar rounds that were launched from the area of the school, and they fired back.
The attack on the U.N. school in the Jebaliya (juh-BAH’-lee-yuh) refugee camp was the second deadly strike on a U.N. compound in a week.
A Palestinian health official says 114 Palestinians were killed today, bringing the total to 1,359 since the start of fighting.
The Israeli military says three of its soldiers were killed when a booby-trapped house collapsed after they identified an entrance to a tunnel inside. That raised to 56 the number killed since a ground war began earlier this month.
%@AP Links
197-c-20-(Karin Laub (lowb), AP correspondent)-“people were wounded”-AP correspondent Karin Laub reports witnesses say Israeli airstrikes in a crowded shopping area have caused many casualties. (30 Jul 2014)
<
199-c-18-(Karin Laub (lowb), AP correspondent)-“about four hours”-AP correspondent Karin Laub reports the area was busy because residents thought a cease-fire was in place. (30 Jul 2014)
<
APPHOTO AXLP168: Palestinian freelance photographer Motaz Al Salhy, center, accompanied by colleagues, cries as he holds the bloodied helmet of his friend, freelance cameraman Rami Rayan, who was killed while working, in an Israeli strike in Shijaiyah neighborhood outside the morgue of Gaza City’s Shifa hospital, on Wednesday, July 30, 2014. The 25-year old, father of four, was covering Israeli strikes in the area. Israeli strikes hit the crowded shopping area in Gaza City, hours after tank shells tore through the walls of a U.N. school crowded with war refugees Wednesday in the deadliest of a series of air and artillery attacks that push the Palestinian death toll above 1,300 in more than three weeks of fighting. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis) (30 Jul 2014)
< Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
