More Gaza airstrikes
August 24, 2014
Two Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Sunday as the Israeli military pushed on with airstrikes on the enclave, Israeli media reported.
Four other people were wounded in the attack in Gaza City, Israel radio said.
The Israeli army said its aircraft had hit 20 "terror targets" in Gaza during Sunday morning, while militants fired at least 20 rockets or mortar rounds at Israel.
The number of Israeli airstrikes was greatly reduced in comparison with Saturday, when 60 attacks were carried out, in which 10 Palestinians died and a 12-story apartment block destroyed.
A commercial center in the southern town of Rafah was also destroyed late on Saturday, witnesses said.
Reprisal attacks
Saturday's onslaught came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to avenge the death of an Israeli child in a Palestinian rocket strike, one of four civilians to die on the Israeli side in 48 days of fighting.
The violence in the Gaza Strip is continuing, despite a call by Egypt on Saturday for a ceasefire to allow negotiations on a lasting truce.
Previous temporary ceasefires have failed to give enough time for the two sides to agree on a deal acceptable to both sides.
The Palestianian Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, says any truce must provide a lifting of Israel's eight-year blockade on the enclave, and the opening of a seaport and airport. Israel has called for a complete disarmament of Gaza before it agrees to a permanent truce.
Widening conflict?
Also on Sunday, five rockets from Syria landed in the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, causing no casualties or damage, the Israeli military said.
The Israeli military also said Lebanese militants had fired two rockets into northern Israel just hours beforehand, hitting a house in the Galilee region.
The attacks have raised concerns that the conflict in Gaza could expand.
At least 2,105 Palestinians, most of the civilians, have died in the latest round of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which erupted on July 8. Sixty-eight people have been killed on the Israeli side, all but four of them soldiers.
tj/kb (AFP, dpa, Reuters)