Gaza City/Ramallah: Two Palestinians, one of them a 16-year-old boy, were killed and four wounded by an Israeli tank shell in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, hospital officials said.
Ahmad Abu Qaida and Mervat Abu Sharekh, a 24-year-old woman, were killed by the shell in the Al Nada area of the town of Beit Lahiya, they said.
Also yesterday, a 15-year-old Palestinian girl, Sumaya Okal, died from injuries that she received from an Israeli tank shell in Jabaliya in northern Gaza on July 27.
At least 152 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have died since Israel launched a massive offensive in late June to recover a soldier captured by Gaza fighters and to halt rocket fire, according to an AFP count.
Israel has freed the deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament, an independent lawmaker close to the governing Hamas group, after detaining him for a month, he said.
Hassan Khreishe was arrested along with dozens of Hamas officials and ministers following the June 25 capture of a soldier by militants from the Gaza Strip, including Hamas gunmen. Khreishe said he had been freed on Sunday night.
Unlike the Hamas members, Khreishe was not charged. "I was arrested and interrogated for incitement," Khreishe said. "I am not Hamas. I ran as an independent, but the Hamas ministers who were with me in jail are in a difficult position ... It doesn't look like they will be released soon."
Israeli officials did not comment on his release.
Although an independent, Khreishe had the support of Hamas at the parliamentary elections in January, in which the movement trounced the long dominant Fatah movement.
Aid: Kuwait makes $50m donation
Kuwait is donating $50 million (Dh183.7 million) to the Palestinian people, the government said yesterday.
Esmail Al Shatti, Kuwait's Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, said the donation was to help Palestinians "deal with the aftermath of the continuing Israeli barbaric attacks and crimes," the state-owned Kuwait Television reported.
It did not say when the money would be given.
