Gaza/Jerusalem: Israel on Tuesday stepped up its assault on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, raising the Palestinian death toll to 604 in the 15-day conflict that has also left 29 Israelis dead, even as international efforts intensified to broker a ceasefire.
Israeli air strikes on Tuesday destroyed several mosques and targeted a stadium and the home of a late leader of Hamas's military wing.
At least five persons were killed and 70 others injured in the latest Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza, Palestinian health ministry sources said, adding that several doctors were also wounded in the attack.
A strike on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Tuesday killed five family members, four of them women. One person in nearby Nusseirat and one in Khan Yunis died in the Israeli attacks.
Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it had targeted a cache of anti-tank missiles in the hospital's "immediate vicinity".
Over 30 members of two Palestinian families also died in Israeli strikes overnight, Gazan health officials said.
The IDF today announced that nine soldiers were killed on Monday, raising the number of Israeli military fatalities since the operation commenced to 27. Two Israeli civilians have also been killed.
One of the IDF soldiers classified as "missing" in Gaza was declared dead. However his body is still missing. The IDF Spokesman's Office said three soldiers have been seriously wounded, eight moderately wounded and 19 were lightly wounded during the past 24 hours. Two Israeli civilians have been killed and about a dozen injured.
So far, 604 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded since Israel began its Operation Protective Edge two weeks ago, Gaza Health Ministry officials said on Tuesday.
It was unclear how many of the dead were militants, but the United Nations has estimated that between 70-80 per cent were civilians, including at least 120 children. Israel said that its forces have killed more than 180 militants.
UN agencies working in Gaza said that more than 100,000 Gazans have now been displaced and have sought shelter in UNRWA facilities where providing basic necessities "is an impossible challenge".
"Civilian casualties are a tragic inevitability of (Hamas') brutal and systematic exploitation of homes, hospitals and mosques in Gaza," the IDF said in a statement.
It said that approximately 131 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel yesterday, of which at least 108 hit Israel and 17 were intercepted.
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