Israeli Troops Kill Ten Palestinians

One of the victims was named as eight-year-old Hisham Ashur who was hit by a bullet in the neck, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Another was identified as Wissam Al-Qidra, 18.

Eight Palestinians were killed in missile strikes that accompanied the Israeli incursion, reported Haaretz.

It quoted witnesses as saying Israeli drones fired at least five missiles.

One air strike hit a Palestinian national security service position in the Khan Yunis area, killing to security officers.

Also Monday morning, an air strike targeted Palestinians near a cemetery, witnesses said.

Medics said one Palestinian was killed and two were in critical condition as each had lost a limb in the attack.

Four other Palestinians were wounded by an Israeli tank shell shortly after the early Monday air strike, they added.

An Israeli army spokesman claimed the attacks targeted "armed Palestinians who had approached (Israeli) forces."

Palestinian sources said about 30 Israeli armored vehicles and seven bulldozers rolled into a 800-meter (yard) section of Khan Yunis, occupying an entire neighborhood.
According to witnesses, Israeli armored bulldozers demolished at least one house in Khan Yunis and knocked down part of a wall around a hospital.

The new fatalities bring to 4,522 the number of people killed since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada against the Israeli occupation in September 2000, including 3,492 Palestinians and 956 Israelis, according to an AFP tally.

The new Israeli offensive comes a few days after the occupation forces redeployed its troops in the northern Gaza Strip ending a 17-day onslaught.

At least 137 Palestinians, including many children, were killed in the Israeli operation in Jabaliya, a refugee camp of 100,000, in the deadliest military operation in Gaza since the outbreak of Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Around 100 houses were leveled in Jabaliya and neighboring Beit Lahia, scenes of the heaviest destruction.

The bloody Israeli incursion, which plunged the northern Gaza Strip in scenes of anguish, came under a double attack Monday, October 18, from the Human Rights Watch and UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

A 10-year-old Palestinian schoolgirl died of her wounds after Israeli snipers shot her in the chest while she was sitting inside a UN-run school in a Gaza refugee camp.