

Relatives of a Palestinian man killed in Israeli shelling console each other at a hospital morgue in Gaza City. (Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)

Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strip today has killed at least four people and injured between 30-40 people. Reports on Twitter say between 4 and 7 people have been killed so far.

From Maan News:

Israeli tank shells killed 4 Palestinians and wounded 30 in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, medics and witnesses said. Ahmad al-Dardasawi, 18, and Muhammad Hararah, 17, were killed in Gaza City, and two unidentified men later died from injuries sustained in the attack. At least 26 people were wounded in the shelling, with 10 said to be in a serious condition.

Several injuries came from Israeli shelling a mourning tent in the al-Shujaiyeh neighborhood near Gaza City.

Israel says the shelling was in response to an attack on a IDF jeep where four soldiers were injured by in an anti-tank missile. Haaretz reports that the military wing of the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine took responsibility for the attack. Ma’an quotes the the Popular Resistance Committees as saying the missile attack on Israel was a “revenge invoice” for the increase of Israeli attacks on Gaza as of late. These include the deaths earlier this week of a Ahmad Nabhani, who was shot dead approaching the Gaza wall on Monday, and Hamid Younis Abu Daqqa, a 13-year-old boy who was killed by Israeli machine gun fire during an incursion into Khan Younis on Thursday.

This is an unfolding story and we will try to update it as more confirmed information becomes available. For important background, see this post from Yousef Munayyer – Half the story: What @IDFSpokesperson leaves out about Gaza.