Israeli forces kill mother and child and an elderly man, kill 10 total in past 24 hours, injure dozens

Ma'an – For the fourth and fifth times on Friday, Israeli forces hit the Gaza Strip, killing a mother and child, and an elderly man in two separate strikes near Khan Younis. Ten have been killed since Thursday afternoon.

The most recent strike, shortly after 2:00 p.m. hit the Faraheen area east of Khan Younis, killing a mother, her daughter and injuring a third child. A strike half an hour earlier killed an elderly man in the Manara area of the city, medics said.

The bombings were said to have been in retaliation for the launching of a projectile from the Gaza Strip, which hit a school bus in southern Israel, injuring two people on Thursday. The strike was claimed by Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades [which said its strike was in retaliation for Israel's assassination of 3 resistance fighters earlier].

Israel has reported the landing of five more projectiles near Ashkelon since Friday morning. None of the strikes have been claimed.

Thursday afternoon strikes hit a home east of Gaza City, killing one, and late at night four others were killed in strikes across the Strip.

A Thursday move from Hamas to prevent further Israeli strikes appears to have gone unaccepted, after the party said it had gotten most armed Palestinian factions in Gaza to sign on to a ceasefire pledge.

Friday attacks have been reported as follows:

1:45 p.m. Israeli artillery fire hits the Al-Farahin area east of Khan Younis. WAFA reported a mother killed and her two children injured.

Israeli media reported shortly before the strike that five projectiles launched from Gaza landed near Ashkelon, with no injuries.

Medics later confirmed that Najah Kudeih, 45, and her daughter Nidal, 21, were killed, while a second daughter, Nida, 18, was seriously injured.

1:30 p.m. A 55-year-old man was killed by an Israeli air strike which hit in the Manara area east of the city. Medics identified the man as Talal Abu Taha, 55.

9:45 a.m. An airstrike combined with artillery hit the town of Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis, killing two.

Israel's military said in a statement that "forces identified two terrorist squads from the Hamas terrorist organization," adding that air and artillery fire were used and the military "identified hits."

Hamas' military wing, the Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, named those killed as Abdallah Al-Qarra and Muataz Abu Jamea.

8:00 a.m. An Israeli strike hit in an open area east of Rafah, no injuries were reported.

7:00 a.m. Israeli shelling on Rafah airport in southern Gaza injured three, witnesses reported.

Thursday strikes kill five

Air strikes hit what was described by the Israeli military as positions in and around Gaza City where projectiles had been fired from on Thursday, and other raids hit targets in the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

The strikes killed four, identified as resistance fighters affiliated with Hamas. A statement from the Al-Qassam Brigades identified those killed as leader Salah Tarabin, 38, Musab al-Sufi, 18, Muhammad Almanmom, 25, and Khaled Aldbari, 23.

Thursday afternoon, Artillery fire also hit the southern Gaza Strip, with witnesses saying artillery fire injured five people, including a small child, and killed Mahmoud Al-Manasra, 50, who died after shells landed near his home in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City.

In total, more than 40 people were wounded across the Gaza Strip overnight.