Israel kills 50 Palestinians in 6 days

A 17-year-old Palestinian student has been killed in an Israeli air strike in Beit Lahiya , part of a massive Israeli military campaign has left 50 Palestinians and one soldier dead in six days in the northern Gaza Strip, medical officials said.

Mahmud Ashrafi was killed and nine other Palestinians, two of them five-year-olds, were hurt in the Israeli strike near a school in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza.

The Israel forces claim that “militants” were the target of the attack. The Israeli military said its attack was targeting Palestinian fighters who came to collect a rocket launcher used to fire two rockets on an Israeli town on Sunday.

But witnesses reported that the Israeli aircraft missed its target, striking near a school instead.

Beit Hanoun remains under siege by Israeli tanks and troops who raided the town a few days ago, and ordered residents to stay indoors.

"There was an attack on a Qassam launching cell in the area of Beit Lahiya. They came to pick up their launchers that were used yesterday to fire at Israel, two Qassam. We identified hitting them," a military spokesman said Monday.

"The target of this operation is against the terrorist infrastructure and in particular the rocket launching infrastructure."

Another Israeli military source claimed that Palestinian fighters used a "school and college in that area as a cover for launching rockets at Israel" on Sunday.

Palestinian officials labeled the unjustified military incursion by the Israelis a "massacre".

Another Palestinian boy, hurt in an Israeli attack on Beit Hanun on Saturday, has just died of his injuries, medical sources said.

Among the 50 Palestinians killed over the past week in Israel’s Operation Autumn Clouds are a four-year-old, a 12-year-old, three teenagers, a 70-years-old and at least 26 fighters.

Over 200 Palestinians have been hurt in the attacks.