A Palestinian boy is treated by journalists at the al-Deira hotel after he was injured during an Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, today. Four children were killed in Israeli shelling witnessed by AFP journalists.
AFP/Gaza
Four children were killed and several injured in Israeli shelling of a beach in Gaza City on Wednesday, medics and AFP journalists said.
Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said four children were killed and at least five others injured, some of whom sought refuge at a hotel used by journalists.
The deaths raised the toll in a nine-day conflict between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas which controls Hamas to 213 Palestinians killed.
The first strike hit at around 1300 GMT, prompting children and adults on the beach to scatter, as others rushed out to see what happened.
A second struck as they ran, setting fire to huts on the beach as terrified children shouted that there were dead and injured.
The strikes appeared to be the result of shelling by the Israeli navy against an area with small shacks used by fishermen.
Several children ran inside the hotel where AFP journalists saw at least three with shrapnel injuries.
They were evacuated by ambulances, which also picked up more injured people from the beach, including a man who had part of his leg torn off.
The four bodies were later taken to Abu Hasira mosque, near where the boys had died.
The boys, all from the Bakr family, were laid out, wrapped in the yellow flags of the Fatah party of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, in front of mourners.
"We come from God and to God we shall return," the imam overseeing the funeral prayers said.