At least 2,091 Palestinians have been killed and 10,500 others injured in attacks since the Israeli military launched operations on Gaza on July 7, Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told The Anadolu Agency on Friday.
The Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement Friday that its fighters had fired a J80 rocket on Tel Aviv and Israel confirmed the attack, saying that it left no injuries or damage.
Palestinian resistance factions in the Gaza Strip on Friday executed 18 people for spying for Israel, a pro-Hamas internet portal reported. It comes after three commanders of the prominent Palestinian group Hamas were killed in Israeli airstrikes.
In an exclusive interview with The Anadolu Agency, Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal on Thursday accused Israel of perpetrating a "holocaust" in the embattled coastal strip.
"What Israel has done in the Gaza Strip over the last 45 days is a genuine holocaust," Meshaal told AA. "They are killing children, destroying residential areas, mosques, hospitals and schools run by the United Nations.
"Israel is replicating what [Nazi leader Adolf] Hitler did years ago," Meshaal said.
The deputy head of the political office of Palestinian faction Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, said late on Thursday about the assassination of three commanders that his movement becomes stronger by the assassination of its leaders.
"We assure everybody that we will continue to move ahead, even with the pains we feel at the absence of our leaders in the field," Haniyeh said.
"The history of our movement had proved that it becomes stronger after the assassination of its leaders," he added in a statement.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Friday that a permanent ceasefire between Israelis and Palestinians is possible if the two sides return to negotiations on a two-state solution.
On Friday, Canada provided $5 million financial aid to help Gaza.
Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Minister of International Development Christian Paradis announced the aid in a statement, calling on Hamas to agree to a ceasefire for broader relief efforts.
Pro-Palestine activists in the U.S. city of Chicago protested on Friday against a campaign in support of Israeli military operations in Gaza on Thursday. There were also protests on Friday in the West Bank in a show of solidarity with Gaza.
Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has been crippled by an Israeli blockade that has badly affected the local economy and wreaked havoc on the lives of residents.
www.aa.com.tr/en
