Death toll rises to 136 from Israeli attacks on Gaza

GAZA, Palestine, May 15 -- Israeli attacks on the blockaded Gaza Strip killed three more Palestinians early Saturday, taking the death toll to 136, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The dead includes two siblings from the al-Mansi family and one from the al-Sabah family.

Total fatalities included 38 children and 22 women, while the number injured has exceeded 950 since Monday, Anadolu Agency reported a statement from the ministry said.

Israeli forces carried out nearly 30 airstrikes early Saturday targeting the northern Gaza Strip.

The Kuleybu Mosque was completely destroyed in the attack, Gaza's Ministry of Foundations and Religious Affairs said in a statement.

Before this latest attack, Israel killed seven civilians, including five children and two women.

Witnesses said the bodies were taken to Shifa hospital after the bombing of a house belonging to the Abu Hatab family in the Al-Shati refugee camp.

A search for missing people under the rubble is underway, they said.

Anadolu Agency reported that Israeli warplanes resumed airstrikes Friday on the blockaded Gaza Strip, causing heavy damage to residential buildings across the enclave.

Meanwhile, 11 Palestinians were killed Friday as Israeli forces clashed with demonstrators to disperse rallies in parts of the West Bank.

Also, Lebanese authorities announced that a Lebanese youth was killed when Israeli artillery fire targeted protesters along the Israeli security fence in the south of the country.

Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Damascus Gate since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as Israeli forces and settlers assaulted Palestinians.

Tensions moved from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognised by the international community.

-- BERNAMA