Israeli strikes kill 5 as Gaza seethes

 The Israeli military said it “identified two terrorist squads from Hamas” and hit the militants from the ground and air.

An elderly Palestinian and two women died when their house in Khan Younis was hit . Three other women were wounded, hospital sources said.

An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) statement said that “uninvolved civilians have apparently been injured” in one strike.

“The IDF regrets that the Hamas terrorist organisation chooses to operate from within its civilian population, using it as a ‘human shield’,” the statement said. At least 15 rockets have been fired into Israel since dawn, causing damage but no injuries, said a police spokesman. Police were restricting traffic near the border area and there appeared to be no early end in sight to operations.

“We are in the middle of an event,” General Tal Russo, head of Israel forces Southern Command, told reporters. “We are considering all actions, and we are in the midst of it.”
Hamas had been hit hard, he said, but it was not over yet.

“We are considering everything. There are many tools in the box.”Two years of low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when the Islamist Hamas group which rules Gaza fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, triggering a surge of fighting which killed 16 Palestinians.