Gaza toll reaches 835

The toll in the ongoing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has escalated to 835, with more than 5,300 injured, the health ministry in the coastal enclave said Friday.

According to the ministry, as Israel continued its air strikes, 29 Palestinians were killed, while more than 200 were injured, Xinhua reported.

According to a Hamas statement, the Israeli war jets reduced to rubble the house of one of its senior leaders, Salah al-Bardaweel, in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

The Islamic Jihad movement also said that Salah Abu Hassanein, a local leader of the movement in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, was killed together with two of his sons when Israeli war jets’ missiles struck their house.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) Friday said that one soldier was killed during an operation in the northern Gaza Strip.

The death of the 36-year-old Master Sergeant Yair Ashkenaz has raised to 33 the toll of Israeli soldiers since the start of the military campaign July 8.

–IANS