Siblings aged 10 and six hit by fragments of missile fired in response to rocket attacks from Gaza

A Palestinian boy and his sister were killed in Hamas-controlled Gaza when they were hit by fragments from a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft, medical officials said.

The incident took place on Saturday hours after militants launched rockets into Israel. An Israeli military statement said aircraft had targeted four militant training camps belonging to Hamas after four missiles landed in open areas in southern Israel on Friday night. No casualties were reported from the rocket strikes.



Residents of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip said Yassin Abu Khoussa, 10, died after debris from the explosion hit his home, which is next to a militant training camp. His six-year-old sister, Israa, who was seriously wounded, later died in hospital, said a Gaza health ministry spokesman.

The deaths were the first from Israeli attacks on Gaza since last October. The Israeli army said that since the beginning of the year and including Friday’s salvo, seven rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.



The Israeli defence minister, Moshe Ya’alon, said rogue militant groups had launched the rockets from Gaza. “We will not tolerate the disruption of calm and the daily life of the residents who live around the Gaza Strip … which is why we reacted strongly against Hamas assets and we will act even more harshly if these attempts continue,” Ya’alon said.



Gaza rocket fire has tapered off significantly since the 2014 war when militants fired thousands of rockets and mortar rounds into Israel. Israeli attacks killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, while Palestinian fighters killed six Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers.



Hamas’s armed wing said on Saturday it would “not accept [Israel’s] shedding of the blood of our children.” But it stopped short of vowing retaliation.



Beset by a months-long surge in street attacks by Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel has little desire to see a new flare-up in Gaza, where Hamas has mostly held its fire in the past 18 months.

