GAZA CITY
A 10-year Palestinian child was killed and 11 people were injured in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday, a Health Ministry spokesman said. "The child was killed in an Israeli attack that targeted a mosque in the Gaza Strip," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.
Eleven Palestinians, including children, were also injured in the attacks, he added.
The Israeli army resumed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Friday following the expiry of a three-day ceasefire with Gaza-based Palestinian factions.
Israeli warplanes launched three airstrikes on farmlands in southern and western Gaza City, local Palestinian sources said.
Israeli planes also struck empty lands in northern and eastern Gaza Strip and an empty land in the southern Rafah city.
The Israeli army confirmed the airstrikes, saying the attacks targeted what it described as "terror sites" in Gaza.
"The IDF [army] is determined to defend the civilians of the state of Israel,” it said in a statement.
Friday's raids came shortly after Palestinian factions fired a barrage of rockets at Israel following the expiry of an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on Friday.
The ceasefire was brokered following a month of incessant Israeli strikes against the Gaza Strip that left 1893 Palestinians dead and 9806 others injured. The attacks have also turned thousands of Gaza's buildings into rubble.
Palestinian factions and Israel held indirect talks in Cairo to extend the ceasefire, but no agreement was reached as Palestinian factions linked the extension to Israel's approval of their conditions, including lifting a years-long blockade on the Gaza Strip and the creation of a seaport.
The Gaza Strip, home to 1.8 million Palestinians, has been reeling under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2006, badly affecting the livelihood in the seaside enclave.
By Ola Attalah
englishnews@aa.com.tr
http://www.aa.com.tr/en
