Israel kills 7 Palestinians in Gaza

GAZA CITY—Seven people, including a teenager and three gunmen, have been killed in the Gaza Strip as Israel pressed an offensive on militants that has left 42 Palestinians and one soldier dead in four days.
The bloodshed followed one of Gaza’s deadliest days in months, when 19 people were killed as Israel continued with an operation launched early Wednesday aimed at stopping rocket fire into Israeli territory.
Two brothers, age 25 and 26, as well as a 16-year-old boy were killed in an afternoon helicopter raid in Jabaliya. The brothers were identified by medical officials as members of the ruling Islamist Hamas’s armed wing.
Earlier a local Hamas militant commander was killed in an air raid in Gaza City that wounded four other militants, medics said.
A Hamas militant and a 46-year-old man were killed in Beit Hanun, and another Hamas militant died of wounds sustained in an artillery strike in nearby Jabaliya, which wounded four other gunmen.—Agencies