Gaza's Tuesday death toll hits 34

At least 11 Palestinians were killed early Tuesday and 50 others injured in fresh Israeli airstrikes against the Gaza Strip, increasing to 34 the number of Palestinians killed since midnight, a Palestinian Health Ministry official said.

Five Palestinians from Duhair family were killed and 20 others injured in an Israeli aerial attack on their home in Rafah town, southern Gaza Strip, while another airstrike claimed the lives of three from Naggar family and wounded 15 others in Khan Younis in the south, Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.

A third airstrike killed three in Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip, he added.

At least 15 Palestinians were also injured in aerial and artillery attacks on Gaza City, the spokesman said.

The new fatalities brought the death toll in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of Israel's ongoing operation against the enclave on July 7 to 1119, al-Qodra said.

He added that 6550 more Palestinians were injured by Israeli strikes and artillery shelling since the beginning of the war.

Since July 7, Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip with fierce aerial, naval and artillery bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire from the strip.

Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rocket at Israeli cities in response to relentless Israeli bombardments.

According to official Israeli figures, 48 Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed since the hostilities began.

Israel's military operation, dubbed operation "Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against the densely-populate Gaza Strip - which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians - within the last six years.

In 2008/9, over 1500 Palestinians were killed in Israel's three-week-long operation "Cast Lead."