Al QUDS, Dec 10: A young Palestinian girl was killed by Israeli forces in the town of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday shortly after a mortar attack nearby, Palestinian medical sources said.

"We were having lunch when suddenly there were some explosions and automatic gunfire," the victim's father Omar Siam, 50, said. "I felt a pain in my leg, but I was only lightly injured, thank God... Our meal was splashed in blood. We then realized that Rania had been killed by a bullet which hit her head," he said, adding that his daughter was seven.

Two others were wounded in the incident, the medical sources added. The death came shortly after a mortar attack by Hamas on a nearby settlement that wounded at least two Israelis. -AFP