Gaza death toll climbs as four militants killed in bloodiest attacks yet

MaltaToday's correspondent in Gaza was at the Al Shifa morgue on Friday evening, which has now seen seen 17 victims since the start of Israeli attacks. It's the worst period of violence since the Israeli offensive in 2008.

One of the victims was Bilel Al Areir, aged 22 from Al Shajaiya, "a university student who was walking down the street at around 5:30pm when he was struck by shrapnel from an F-16 missile."

Another victim was Mahmoud Al jerou, 12, also from Shajaiya, killed in the same incident while playing football in the same street. Another nine were wounded.

"Morgue watchmen said another two victims of the Israeli aggression at Al Shifa hospital were buried on Friday, killed by drones in Al Shati camp."

Gaza militants continued pounding Israel's south with rockets, wounding five Israelis in the south of the country at around daybreak, Israeli media reports said.

Cross-border violence has surged since Hamas militants fired an anti-tank rocket at a yellow Israeli school bus on Thursday, wounding two Israelis including a teenager listed in a serious condition.

Israel has said it wants to teach Hamas a lesson for that attack which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday amounted to "crossing a line" adding that "whoever tries to attack and murder children puts his life on the line."

Militants have fired dozens of rockets and mortars at Israel, wounding about half a dozen people. Fifty rockets were fired on Friday, and an "Iron Dome" missile defense system in place since last week intercepted some of them.

In a predawn raid Israel killed a local Hamas commander in the southern town of Rafah bordering on Egypt, as well as two of his bodyguards, in a targeted strike on a vehicle, Palestinian medics said.

All three were killed instantly, they said. Five militants were wounded in a second air raid in northern Gaza, and at daybreak another air strike killed yet another militant and wounded another.