Israeli air strikes killed two Palestinian soldiers in Gaza during the night. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it was targeting rocket-launching facilities near Beit Hanoun, a town in the extreme northeast of the Gaza strip.
Palestinians in Gaza have sent 11 rockets into Israel since yesterday, with no reported casualties. Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak says that Israel is conducting an extensive operation to stop them.
The IDF has killed 11 Palestinians in Gaza over the past 24 hours and more than 20 have been wounded. It’s unclear what proportion of those killed are civilians.
Gaza is almost completely cut off from the relatively more prosperous West Bank, where the majority of Palestinians live.
Yesterday, thousands of Gazans attended the funeral of Abdel Shafi, co-founder of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and lead negotiator at the Madrid peace talks with Israel in 1991. Both major Palestinian political groups, Hamas and Fateh, attended.
- Agence France-Presse: Israel kills 11 Palestinians in Gaza in less than 24 hours
- The Independent: Barak says Israel is ‘close’ to Gaza operation
- BBC: PLO veteran mourned in Gaza Strip
