Update - Gaza's Tuesday Death Toll Hits 23

At least 13 Palestinians were killed early Tuesday and 10 others injured in fresh Israeli airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, increasing to 23 the number of Palestinians killed since midnight, a Palestinian Health Ministry official said.



"At least 11 Palestinians were killed and 10 others injured – mostly women and children - in an Israeli air attack on a house in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip," Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.



"Two others were killed in a similar attack in Gaza City," he added.



The new fatalities brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of Israel's ongoing operation against the enclave on July 7 to 1108, al-Qodra said.



He added that 6500 more Palestinians were injured by Israeli strikes and artillery shelling since the beginning of the war.



Since July 7, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip with fierce aerial, naval and artillery bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire from the strip.



Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rocket at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.



According to official Israeli figures, 48 Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed since the hostilities began.



Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip – which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians – within the last six years.



In 2008/9, over 1500 Palestinians were killed in Israel's three-week-long operation "Cast Lead."



By Mustafa Haboosh



englishnews@aa.com.tr



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