By KUNA,
Gaza : Two Palestinians were killed late Saturday night and early Sunday morning and some 50 others were reported wounded as Israeli attacks on Gaza Strip entered their 16th day.
Palestinian medical sources said Hanan Al-Najjar, 41, and an unidentified man were killed when Israeli places bombed the vicinity of a school in Khazaal town, setting it and a number of nearby houses on fire.
Some 50 people suffered from burns and were hit with shrapnel, and Palestinian ambulances and fire engines were fired at by Israeli troops, preventing them from reaching the scene of fire.
Early this morning, Gaza City came under unprecedented intensive air raids targeting several locations, while tanks advanced toward Tel Al-Hawa in the southern part of the city.
Palestinians, namely the elderly, women and children, are fleeing Tel Al-Hawa, Sabra and Zaitoun and heading into central Gaza City.
Shelling of Tel Al-Hawa has left behind several people dead and wounded, and ambulances and civil defense units are rushing to the area.
Loud blasts could be heard all night long, and Israeli planes have been hovering overhead since the early morning over Gaza City.
Israeli navy ships participated in the attacks, firing rockets at areas along the coasts of Gaza City.
Also early this morning, the house of Ahmad Al-Jaabari, a leader of Hamas’s Ezzidin Al-Qassam Brigades, was raided and destroyed in the eastern Gaza City district of Shujaiya, according to an Israeli army spokesman.
Palestinian radio, meanwhile, reported that Israeli planes raided the Fadhila Mosque and a school housing orphans in Rafah City, southern Gaza, and destroyed them.
Meanwhile, Yedioth Ahronoth, in its online edition, said two Grads were fired at the southern Israeli city of Beersheba this morning, just a few seconds after an air raid siren was sounded in the city.
One of the rockets hit an open area inside the city, it said, and there were no injuries reported, but four people were treated for shock.
The newspaper also quoted a senior official of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said saying that the army “had to extend its operation inside Gaza Strip in order to meet the objectives set for the ground offensive by the political echelon.” “Hamas suffered a substantial blow, has lost many men and its infrastructure sustained grave damages … and the IDF should carry on doing so,” said the high-ranking officer.
If the military campaign is halted at this point, he added, this could prove to be a mistake in the long run.
Following a security discussion held Saturday night, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had ordered the military to broaden its activity in the Strip, it reported.