Two Al-Aqsa TV Journalists Killed in Israeli Strike on Gaza
Two cameramen from Hamas-owned Al-Aqsa TV were among six people killed in Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip, raising Tuesday's death toll to 20, a Hamas spokesman said.
Health officials said a total of more than 125 people had been killed and over 1,000 wounded since Israel began its relentless bombing campaign on November 14 in a bid to stamp out cross-border rocket fire by militants.
"Two cameramen from Al-Aqsa TV have been killed: Mahmoud Komi and Hossam Salama," health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence France Presse, saying the strike hit a car in Gaza City's Nasser area that was clearly marked as a press vehicle.
The Israeli army had no comment on the apparent targeting of a press vehicle, confirming only that the air force had carried several attacks in the area.
"We attacked two terrorist squads in northern Gaza: one was adjacent to a weapons storage site that was also a missile launching site; the other was just a terror squad," a spokeswoman said.
Qudra said three more people were killed in Gaza City's Shejaiya neighborhood, and another person died in an air strike on the northern town of Beit Hanoun. "That takes the total today to 20," he told AFP.
An earlier strike on a car in the Sabra neighborhood of central Gaza City killed six people and wounded two others, he told AFP.
Separately, the Hamas ambulance service announced that two children had died in a strike on Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood, with a statement saying they had arrived at the city's Shifa hospital "in pieces."
During the morning, Israeli warplanes killed another six people, ending a night of relative calm in which no-one died for the first time since the start of the campaign six days ago.
One was killed in Safina, just north of Gaza City, and another in a strike on Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.
Elsewhere, 15-year-old Yahya Mohammed Awad was killed as he hunted birds near the beach when a missile hit the northern Sudaniya area, and three men died in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya and in Mughraqa, just south of Gaza City.
Overnight, the Israeli military said it attacked about 100 targets, including "a financial institution used by Hamas."
Palestinian officials confirmed that the National Islamic Bank in Gaza City, which was set up by the Islamist movement that runs Gaza, was severely damaged in a raid.
Hamas officials and witnesses also told AFP that strikes hit the homes of several leaders within its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades. Monday was the bloodiest day of the Israeli operation, with 33 people killed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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