Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, while rockets from Gaza target Israel amidst ongoing conflict.
\n GAZA STRIP
\nThe Israeli military reported three rockets targeting its territory on Friday from the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian rescuers said Israeli air strikes killed at least 16 people, including children.
\nThe rockets were the latest in a spate of launches by militants in the devastated Palestinian territory, with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warning this week of even more intense retaliatory strikes if they continued.
\nAfter more than 14 months of war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in Gaza, such launches had become rare. They have intensified since late December as Israel continues a three-month major land and air offensive in the territory\u2019s north.
\nThe military said one of Friday\u2019s rockets \u201cfell adjacent to the community of Nir Am\u201d, in Israel off the northeastern tip of Gaza, while the second landed in an uninhabited area.
\nEarlier in the day, it said another rocket fired from Gaza had triggered sirens near Beeri, opposite central Gaza.
\nNo injuries were reported.
\nIn Gaza, first responders said they recovered the bodies of 16 Palestinians, several of them children.
\nThe strikes occurred on Gaza City, the central Maghazi refugee camp and the southern city of Rafah, said Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for Gaza\u2019s Civil Defence.
\n\u201cFriday was a harsh day for the residents of Gaza, particularly in Gaza City, due to the continuous Israeli bombardment,\u201d he told AFP.
\nSeveral of the fatalities occurred in strikes and shelling on northern and central Gaza, and two were in the south, he said.
\nThree children were killed in Israeli shelling in Gaza City\u2019s Zietun neighbourhood, while an air strike killed two people in the southern area of Rafah, Civil Defence said.
\nThe Israeli military said in a statement that during the past day, \u201cthe Israeli air force struck approximately 40 Hamas terrorist gathering points\u201d throughout Gaza.
\nSome of the targets \u201cwere embedded in areas that previously served as schools\u201d, it said.
\nBassal denied the military\u2019s accusation, and alleged the military were \u201cpreventing food and drinking water from reaching dozens of medical staff, patients, and the injured\u201d at the Indonesian Hospital in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Israeli airstrikes kill 16 in Gaza, while rockets from Gaza target Israel amidst ongoing conflict. GAZA STRIP The Israeli military reported three rockets targeting its territory on Friday from the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian rescuers said Israeli air strikes killed at least 16 people, including children. The rockets were the latest in a spate of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453616,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-453593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n