By DPA
Gaza : Twenty-seven Palestinians were killed and 60 wounded Saturday morning in Israeli army ground operations on north-eastern Gaza Strip, hospital and police sources said.
The latest deaths included a doctor, two girls and four militants from the Islamic movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip.
Witnesses said Israeli fire hit the house of doctor Wahid Badawi in the northern Gaza Strip, killing him on the spot.
According to hospital sources, 13-year old Salwa Assalia and her 17-year old sister Samah were killed when an Israeli missile fell near their house in the eastern Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.
Mo’aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the ministry of health, told reporters that earlier in the day 20 Palestinians were killed and 60 others wounded east of Jabaliya town in northern Gaza Strip.
Three children were among the 20 Palestinians killed in air and ground strikes by rockets and shells.
The Israeli army rolled into the eastern territories of northern Gaza Strip after midnight, apparently to remove Palestinian rocket squads from the border and stop their homemade rocket attacks.
Among the recent casualties were four Hamas militants who were engaged in fire exchange with the Israeli forces, the Islamic movement said.
The Israeli incursion has left around 60 Palestinians dead and 200 wounded since Wednesday.