As of day 9 of Israeli offensive; 509 killed, 2450 wounded; 70 killed in last two days

Monday January 05, 2009 06:42 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported on Sunday that 509 Palestinians had been killed and 2,450 residents wounded since Israel started its offensive against the Gaza Strip. 70 Palestinians were killed since Israel launched its ground offensive on Saturday.

Image by the Palestinian Center For Human Rights

Hasan Khalaf of the Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that among the killed were 107 children and 36 women. 70 Palestinians were killed so far in the ground offensive; among them 21 children and 11 women. The number of residents wounded in the ground offensive is more than 371.

On Sunday evening, Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians near a mosque in Gaza city. Soldiers also killed three paramedics and wounded a fourth in a shelling that targeted the Al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City.

Eyewitnesses reported that paramedics, Yasser Shbeir and Rafat Al Aklook, rushed to save wounded civilians when the Israeli Army fired a shell at them. Two other paramedics were also killed when the Israeli Army fired a shell at them after they rushed to a shelled area in an attempt to provide medical assistance to their colleagues and wounded residents. One of the two slain medics was identified as Anas Narsquo'im.

Moreover, medical sources reported that five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike that targeted an area adjacent to a mosque in Jabalia on Sunday evening.

The sources added that the five slain residents are from the same family, and that among them was a one-year old child. Their bodies were severely mutilated.

Also, the Al Quds Brigades of the Islamic Jihad reported that two of its fighters were killed on Sunday evening in the northern part of the Gaza Strip. The two were identified as Alarsquo Ed Deen Yahia Zaqqout, age 30, and Mohammad Hasan Al Baba, age 33.

The Al Quds Brigades said that its fighters fired an RPG shell at a troop-carrier east of Al Zeitoun neighborhood in Gaza City directly hitting it.

Ayman Joudah Brigades, one of the groups inside the Al Aqsa brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, reported that one of its fighters, identified as Ali Al Qittani, was killed in an Israeli shelling in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The Brigades also said that its fighters fired two missiles at Ashkelon (Asqalan).

Moreover, medical sources reported that five residents, all members of the same family, were killed in Israeli air strikes in Al Nahda neighborhood, in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. They were identified as Mohammad Abed Breikh, member of the National Resistance Brigades, his father, his underage brothers Mahdi and Yousef, and his nephew Yousef.

Ten civilians, including four children, were killed in Beit Lahia in a number of Israeli air strikes in Beit Lahia, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip; at least thirty others were wounded.

Five more civilians were killed and 40 others were injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted Firas Market in Gaza City. One of the killed was a senior Hamas member identified as Mohammad Abu Hila. His assistant, Jihad Hamdan, was seriously wounded.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Army admitted that one of their soldiers was killed, and that more than 40 other soldiers have been wounded in the second day of a ground offensive against the Gaza Strip.

gaza strip | israeli attacks | news report saed at imemc dot org

Image by the Palestinian Center For Human Rights