By Xinhua
Gaza : Five Palestinians were killed on Thursday morning during ongoing Israeli army operations in southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, witnesses and paramedics said.
Four of the dead were from one family, medical sources said. They were killed when their home in Bani Suhaila area in the east of Khan Younis came under Israeli artillery shelling.
According to officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, the bodies of the mother of the Fayyad family and her two sons were brought to the hospital alongside with that of a militant killed earlier.
The body of the wife of Sami Fayyad, one of the Fayyad sons, was later found under the house’s ruins. Witnesses said that other members of the family were still stuck under the ruins of their house and the number of casualties may increase.
A Hamas militant was shot dead at the same area earlier at the start of the operation. Israeli army fired seven tank shells at a group of Hamas fighters and killed Munir Barham, 20, Hamas sources said.