Four Palestinians killed, 30 injured in shelling on Gaza

Palestinian teenager receives treatment at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City Four Palestinians were killed and at least 30 injured in Israeli shelling on Gaza strip on Saturday evening, medical sources said. Ahmed al-Dardasawi, 18, and Mohammad Hararah, 17, were killed in Gaza City and two unidentified men later died from severe injuries sustained in the attack.
At least 30 people were wounded in the shelling.The casualty toll in Saturday's violence was one of the highest in a single incident in Gaza in recent months.
At least five of the injured, some of them children, are in critical condition, medical sources said.
Residents said a mourning tent in the Shijaia neighbourhood near Gaza City was full of people paying respects to a bereaved family man when a shell struck.
Ambulances, private vehicles and motorbikes rushed the wounded to hospital, eyewitnesses said. Among those killed was an 18-year-old man.
"The occupation's targeting of civilians was a grave escalation that must not pass in silence," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.
"Resistance must be reinforced in order to block the aggression."
The Israeli army opened fire with tank shells hitting an urban area east of Gaza City after Palestinian fighters fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli border patrol, according to Israeli sources.
The Israeli army confirmed that troops had been targeted by an anti-tank missile along the border.
"An anti-tank rocket was fired at Israeli soldiers during a routine patrol along northern Gaza. They responded to the fire," a spokeswoman said.
Military sources said five soldiers were wounded; two of them seriously, while army radio said the jeep was blown up. The military did not immediately confirm either report.
People’s Front for Liberating Palestine (PFLP) armed wing took responsibility of the attack in a statement, which said its fighters had fired two anti-tank rockets at Israeli troops.
In a separate incident at another location, one person was wounded in an Israeli air strike in the town of Khan Younis.
The clashes took place during a period of increased tension along the Israel-Gaza frontier.
Factions in Gaza said they fired over 19 rockets into Israel on Saturday in response to Israel's shelling of Gaza City.
Earlier, the Popular Resistance Committee said it had fired four rockets at communities close to the border and the towns of Sderot and Netivot in southern Israel, in what it called "the revenge plot" for Israeli tank attacks on Gaza.
"We reaffirm the option of confrontation and resistance to the occupation, and we will continue our resistance and our military responses as long as the occupation continues," they said in a statement. An Israeli army spokesman said 19 rockets were fired into southern Israel, with an additional projectile being shot down by Israel's Iron Dome system.