New Israeli strikes push Gaza death toll to 40

Smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City, Saturday, November 17, 2012. Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, the military said, widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations by militants to include the prime minister’s headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels. AP/Hatem Moussa

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories – Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed 10 Palestinians on Saturday, five of them militants, as nine Israelis were hurt by rocket fire, four of them soldiers, medics said.

The bloodshed raised to 40 the total number of Palestinians killed in just over 72 hours of Israeli air strikes, while another 393 were injured, Gaza’s emergency services said.

In the same period, three Israelis have been killed by rockets and another 18 injured, 10 of them soldiers, police and the army said.

In the latest strike, warplanes hit the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing Osama Qadi, 25, and injuring another two people, emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya said.

Earlier attacks on Rafah killed five people, including a Hamas militant called Mukhlis Adwan. Ambulance worker Awad Nahal and three others believed to be civilians also died.

Another three people — all Hamas militants — were killed in a strike on Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, with security sources naming them as Ali Manameh, Hossam Abdel Jawad and Assaf Gharwish.

Palestinian medics said another man, an Islamic Jihad militant wounded in a strike on Zeitun in Gaza City earlier in the day, died of his injuries. They named him as 24-year-old Mohammed Yassin.

Meanwhile in Israel, nine people were injured by rocket fire on Saturday.

Four were soldiers who sustained light injuries, the army said, with military sources saying they were “inside a building” at the time.

The military said the incident occurred in the Eshkol regional council area, and Hamas militants claimed the attack, saying they had fired five mortar rounds at a “position” in Reim some eight kilometers (five miles) from central Gaza.

During the afternoon, another five Israelis were injured when four rockets hit the southern coastal town of Ashdod, scoring a direct hit on a block of flats and a vehicle, the police and army said.