Three children hurt in Israeli air raids on Gaza

PALESTINE: Three children were injured by flying glass as Israeli war planes attacked targets in the Gaza Strip overnight, hospital staff, witnesses and Hamas officials said Friday.

The three children, aged two, four and 11, were hit by flying glass in a raid on the Sabra district, in the western part of Gaza City, said Moawiya Hassanein, head of the Palestinian emergency services in Gaza.

The air strikes came after the latest in a series of rocket attacks from Gaza into southern Israel, when one landed in the city of Ashkelon late Thursday, causing damage but no casualties, said the Israeli army.

Three Israeli air strikes targeted an area west of Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas. Two of the missiles hit a guard post of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades.

A fourth raid destroyed a workshop in the refugee camp of Nusseirat, in central Gaza.

In two other air raids, Israeli fighters targeted points in the west of Gaza City, completely destroying a small dairy factory in the Sabra district, said witnesses.

The military said in a statement it hit "a weapons manufacturing site in the northern Gaza Strip, a weapons manufacturing site in the central Gaza Strip and two weapons storage facilities in the Southern Gaza Strip."

The attacks were carried out by F16 fighters, the witnesses said.

Israel's armed forces have launched regular air raids on the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, responding to repeated rocket attacks into Israel from Gaza-based militants. GAZA CITY, Friday, AFP