GAZA CITY: A Palestinian teenager and five militants from the governing movement Hamas were killed as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with fresh air strikes and launched a new ground operation on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said that the continuing two-month assault, in which more than 200 Palestinians have been killed since late June, is aimed at securing the release of a soldier abducted by Hamas and other militants.
Sixteen-year-old Ismail Abu Ruk was shot in the chest and two other people wounded by gunfire from Israeli troops operating in southern Gaza, east of the town of Khan Yunis, a local security source said.
More than a dozen tanks and bulldozers, backed up by assault helicopters and drones, pushed about a kilometre (less than a mile) into the territory before dawn, in what the army said was a search for explosives.—AFP
