Gaza: 17 people killed in Israeli airstrike

A fresh Israeli air raid on Gaza early Sunday killed a 12-year-old and wounded another Palestinian, bringing the death toll from strikes since Friday to 17, medical sources said.The early morning airstrike in the eastern Gaza Strip came hours after Hamas armed wing threatened Israel over the attacks.The Israel Defense Forces had no immediate comment on the latest bombing, which also left three people wounded, according to the Palestinian sources.Israel will pay the price for its actions in Gaza, said Abu Obaida, spokesman for the Izzedine al Qassam Brigade of Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the Palestinian territory of Gaza.The Palestinian resistance is capable of selecting its options at this time and all the time, Obaida said. The Palestinian resistance has what will hurt the Zionist occupation and will not stand on the side and watch.Israel said the airstrikes are a response to more than 90 rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israeli communities that injured at least four people.The military targeted part of the terror infrastructure used to execute attacks via the Sinai Peninsula, and the Israel-Egypt border, while violating Egyptian sovereignty, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.The forces remain on high alert, with aircraft patrolling the region and targeting suspected militants. The IDF said it will respond with strength and determination against any attempt to execute terrorist attacks.Four Israeli military tanks entered some 100 meters into the Gaza area, Palestinian officials in Gaza said Saturday.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with the leaders of the communities that were targeted -- Beer Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malakhi, Gan Yavneh, the Eshkol Regional Council, the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council and the Bnei Shimon Regional Council -- and praised the residents fortitude. The town mayors said Israels Iron Dome air defense system provided security to the residents, according to the prime ministers office.We will continue to hit whoever plans to attack citizens of the State of Israel. At the same time, we will continue to improve home front defense including by means of additional Iron Dome systems, the effectiveness of which was shown again over the weekend, Netanyahu said.Medics said three Palestinians were killed in air strikes on Saturday: one near the southern town of Rafah on the border with Egypt and two in Khan Yunis. One more was killed early Sunday in a fresh strike on the east of the Gaza Strip.That death brought to 16 the total number of Palestinians killed since Friday, medics said, adding that at least 27 Palestinians had been wounded, five seriously.The Israeli army said more than 100 rockets and mortar rounds had been fired into Israel from Gaza over 24 hours. Four people, three of them Thai labourers, had been wounded inside Israel, media and Israeli medics said.Residents told Israeli radio and television how they had been told to stay close to bomb shelters and that large public gatherings had been banned, forcing the cancellation of several football matches on Saturday.The army said it had attacked several targets inside Gaza including a terrorist squad planning to fire rockets.The air raids had been in direct response to the rocket fire at Israeli communities in southern Israel, it said.One strike killed the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, Zohair al-Qaisi, and fellow member Mahmud Hanani, the ultra-hardline militant group said. The PRC threatened reprisals for Qaisis death.The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said the air strikes had killed 10 of its members.This was the deadliest 24-hour period on the Gaza-Israel border since a devastating Israeli assault in December 2008-January 2009 aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.Thousands of mourners, many chanting calls for revenge and firing automatic weapons into the air, buried 12 Palestinians on Saturday.Palestinian security officials said that at one funeral, east of Gaza City and close to the Israeli border fence, Israeli troops had opened fire on mourners, wounding four people.The army had no immediate comment.Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the Israeli army will hit anyone planning to attack Israeli citizens. He expected the violence to continue another day or two, he added.Barak said Israel would continue to develop the capabilities of the Iron Dome defence system, designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from a range of between four and 70 kilometres (three and 45 miles).The Israeli military said Qaisi was among the leaders who planned, funded and directed a deadly cross-border attack into southern Israel from Egypts Sinai peninsula last August that killed eight people.Israels escalation creates a negative atmosphere and increases the tension, which leads to the increase in violence in the region, Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaina said.Talal Abu Tharifa, a member of the political bureau of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, urged the Arab League to ask the U.N. Security Council to stop the aggression. He also wants Israeli military and political leaders to go before the International Criminal Court.Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas leader and spokesman, said Israels actions are intended to cover up the governments activities, such as settlement construction.European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged both sides to avoid further escalation and re-establish calm.I very much deplore the loss of civilian life, she said in a Saturday statement.