Palestinian medical sources and eyewitnesses in Gaza reported on Wednesday evening that a Palestinian woman has been killed and 14 other civilians, including children, were injured in a second Israeli air strike in two days in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Medical sources in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, reported that a missile fired by an Israeli air craft targeted a Palestinian vehicle apparently carrying resistance fighters but the missile slammed into a civilian house killing Zakariyya Ahmad, 46, and his sister Fatima, 42. At least fourteen civilians, including five children aged between one and four, were injured in the attack.
The attack comes only one day after the Israeli air force killed three children in another apparent failed assassination attempt in the Gaza Strip.
Also, on Tuesday June 13, nine civilians were killed in an air strike, and on June 9 seven members of one family were killed while picnicking on a Gaza beach by an Israeli shell.
The recent civilian deaths have roused international condemnation while Israeli attempted to explain its attack that constitute a direct breach of the international law as acts of self defense.
The online daily Al Jazeera reported that Ibrahim Gambari, the UN undersecretary-general for political affairs, said while briefing the Security Council on latest developments in the Middle east that Israel has stepped up its targeted killings policy and its shelling of civilian areas in the Gaza Strip.
Israel claimed that the shelled areas are used by Palestinian fighters as launching pad for homemade shells.
Gambari also said that the UN Secretary General Kofi Anan was "particularly disturbed that despite his prior expressions of concern, this pattern was repeated yesterday, when three children were killed and a number of bystanders injured, during another targeted killing by Israel", the Al Jazeera added.
"We would like to, once again, underscore the need for Israel to cease targeted killings, which continue to claim civilian lives," Gambari stated.
Also, the Palestinian observer at the UN, Riyadh Mansour appealed to the Security Council to demand that Israel, as a country that occupies Palestine, should abide by provisions of the fourth Geneva Convention, which he said were applicable to the Palestinian occupied territories.
