Israel kills eight more Palestinians
Two of these were killed by an Israeli air strike that, an army spokesman said, was directed against “two armed cells” in the Al-Atatra area of Beit Lahiya which has been the scene of the deadliest fighting and attacks over the last two days.
“We identified hitting both of them,” the spokesman said. The victims’ names were not immediately released.
In another incident, nineteen-year-old Motaz al-Firi was killed by Israeli tank fire in Atatra and 20-year-old Shadi Omar, who medics said was deaf, was shot in the chest and killed.
Earlier on Friday, a Palestinian was killed in another Israeli air raid in the same area.
An 11-year-old boy died of wounds sustained in an Israeli shooting a day earlier near Beit Hanun in northern Gaza, medics said.
In the occupied West Bank, another Palestinian was shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces in Nablus.
Israeli offer on prisoners
Meanwhile a top Israeli government official suggested on Friday that Israel might release Palestinian prisoners as part of an Egyptian proposal to win freedom for an Israeli soldier held by militants in Gaza.
Avi Dichter, Israel’s minister of public security, said that once the Israeli soldier was released and militants stopped rocket attacks from Gaza, “then, in a goodwill gesture, Israel, as it has in the past, knows how to free prisoners.”
Dichter’s comments were relayed by Ofer Lefler, his spokesman.
