Death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza rises to 43

By Mohamed Abu Don

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 43, according to medical sources.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid in the center of the Gaza City.

Two more people were killed in an Israeli attack north of the Gaza Strip, and two others in the southern city of Khan Younis, the witnesses said.

The new fatalities bring to 43 the number of Palestinians killed and 296 others injured in Israeli airstrikes across the seaside territory, according to the latest figures by the Health Ministry.

Five Israelis have also been killed and 45 others injured in Palestinian rocket fire.

Tensions have been running high since last week after an Israeli court ordered the evictions of Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980, in a move that has never been recognized by the international community.

*Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara