Toll in Gaza hits 337 on day 12 of war

Two Palestinians were killed in fresh Israeli air strikes in Gaza on Saturday morning, among them a six-year-old child, medics said.

The new deaths raised the toll on the 12th day of violence in Gaza to 337 Palestinians, according to emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.

The two new deaths were a man killed north of Gaza City and a six-year-old child killed in the northern Gaza area of Beit Lahiya.

There have been three Israeli deaths so far since the July 8 start of the Operation Protective Edge campaign to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza.

A Bedouin was killed July 19 and four of his family wounded -- including two young children -- when a rocket hit their desert campsite near Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor, police said. 

Another civilian died July 15 when a mortar round exploded in Israel and a soldier was killed by friendly fire inside Gaza on July 18.

Some 2,283 Palestinians have been wounded, Qudra said.

Operation Protective Edge is the bloodiest conflict in the besieged coastal enclave since 2009.

Israel launched its ground offensive late July 17, starting a new phase in the operation which it said aimed to destroy tunnels used by the territory’s dominant power, Islamist movement Hamas.