Relatives of Ismail Dweik, who was killed in an Israeli air raid, mourn before his funeral outside a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip [Fatima Shbair/AP]
Palestinian mourners held a funeral for a fighter who succumbed to wounds suffered during an attack by Israel on the besieged territory of Gaza last weekend.
His death brought the total number of Palestinians killed during the three-day assault to 49, including 17 children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The body of Anas Inshasi, 22, was wrapped in the black-and-white flag of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Mourners said he was wounded by an Israeli air sraid while firing mortar rounds towards Israel.
Israel launched a wave of air raids last Friday after detaining an Islamic Jihad leader in the occupied West Bank earlier that week.
Islamic Jihad began firing rockets at Israel hours after the initial wave of attacks. The violence ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire on Sunday.
In the three days, Israel killed two top Islamic Jihad commanders in Gaza, and the armed group said it lost a total of 12 fighters.
Many Palestinian civilians were among those killed and wounded by Israeli attacks, including 17 children – after an 11-year-old girl died of her wounds on Thursday. Two children are being treated in the intensive care unit of a Palestinian hospital in Jerusalem.
No Israelis were killed or seriously wounded.
Since 2008, Israel has waged four wars on the Palestinian territory, killing nearly 4,000 people – one-quarter of them children.
According to data compiled by Defense for Children International, at least 2,200 children have been killed by the Israeli military and Israeli settlers across the Occupied Palestinian Territories since 2000 – the beginning of the second Intifada.
