A PALESTINIAN mother and her three children were among the ten latest victims of the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
A barrage of Israeli airstrikes at dawn on Friday destroyed several homes in the town of Beit Lahiya, in the north of the Strip.
Four deaths were identified in the preliminary inspection of the mass damage, while a mother and her three children, from the al-Attar family, together with two other bodies, were pulled out from the debris sometime later.
A WAFA correspondent said Israeli fighter jets carried out a ‘crazy barrage of about 160 airstrikes’ concurrently, which coincided with bombing by the Israeli artillery and navy that mainly targeted civilian facilities in the northern Gaza district.
The Ministry of Health said the latest figure brings up the number of Palestinians killed by the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza to 119, including 31 children, in addition to 830 injuries, including 139 children.
Thousands of Israeli troops supported by hundreds of tanks are now awaiting the order to launch their blitzkrieg on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, has reacted to Egyptian and Russian calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
It emphasised that any such proposal must also include cessation of the Tel Aviv regime’s hostilities in the occupied Jerusalem al-Quds, where Israeli forces are violently attacking Palestinian worshippers in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Palestinian Al-Quds TV, citing a report by Israel’s Channel 12 television channel, said Israel had rejected Russia’s offer of a ceasefire under Egyptian supervision after Hamas insisted on the inclusion of the sacred city in the initiative.
Saleh Aruri, an exiled senior Hamas leader, told London-based and Arabic language satellite channel al-Araby on Friday that his group has turned down a proposal for a three-hour lull to allow for more negotiations toward a full cease-fire.
He said Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations were leading the truce efforts.
The head of the political bureau of the Hamas movement, Ismail Haniyeh, has urged Arab and Muslim nations,as well as all freedom-loving people across the world, to participate in mass demonstrations in support of the Gaza Strip, the holy al-Aqsa Mosque as well as Palestinians living inside territories occupied in 1948.
Haniyeh called for marches to reiterate Palestinians’ right to their homeland.
‘We thank all Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs and free people of the world for their heroic and courageous stance against Zionists’ occupation,’ the Hamas chief pointed out.
Israel continued on Friday to bombard the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery shells, ignoring international calls for calm.
Palestinian Arabic-language Safa news agency reported violent artillery shelling hit an area east of Deir al-Balah city, which lies in the central Gaza Strip and is located over 14 kilometres (8.7 miles) south of Gaza City.
Tensions have escalated in Jerusalem al-Quds, the occupied West Bank and Gaza amid the planned forced expulsions of dozens of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood, where illegal Israeli settlers are looking to take over the properties of Palestinian families.
