Five Palestinians were killed in clashes with the IDF on Thursday, including a 75-year-old woman and a child, one day after the Gaza Strip suffered its deadliest violence since Israel launched its offensive last month.
Early Friday, Israeli troops and tanks pulled out of northern Gaza, residents said, after a two-day sweep.
In southern Gaza, Israeli aircraft hit a metal workshop in the city of Khan Younis early Friday, wounding nine people, including two children, hospital officials said. Nearby buildings were also damaged, and rescue workers were searching through the rubble. The military said the target was a weapons storehouse.
The IDF and air force have been attacking the Gaza Strip to try to stop terrorists from firing rockets at southern Israel.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the situation in the Palestinian areas and Lebanon was only likely to get worse after world leaders failed to agree on an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome on Wednesday.
In Algiers, Abbas said the situation in the Palestinian areas and Lebanon would further escalate because of the failure of leaders to agree on an immediate cease-fire at the Rome meeting.
"The situation will worsen and the consequences will be very heavy, not only for the region but probably for the entire world," he told Algeria's official APS news agency.
In Gaza on Thursday, a 75-year-old woman was hit by shrapnel from a tank shell fired at her house near the town of Jebaliya, Palestinian security officials said.
Late Thursday, a 12-year-old boy was killed by Israeli gunfire as he stood on the roof of his house at the edge of the Jebaliya camp across from IDF forces, residents and hospital officials said.
The army said it did not know of either incident, but Israeli forces were trying to keep civilian casualties to a minimum and regretted loss of innocent lives.
The air force fired missiles at eastern Gaza City, killing a Hamas terrorist and wounding 14 others. The army said the attack hit a group of armed men before they could fire at troops.
