GAZA/TEL AVIV, July 10 (RIA Novosti) – The total number of Palestinian victims in Gaza has risen to 75, the press service of the Palestinian Health Ministry reported.
"In total, the actions of Israeli troops killed 75 people and injured more than 530. The latest victims were three people in a shelled car," a representative of the ministry told RIA Novosti.
The Israeli Army confirmed its attack on three activists of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, or PIJ, who were involved in the production of the missiles. PIJ has 5,500 rockets at its disposal, according to the Israeli military. More than a hundred of them have a range of 80 kilometers, which means they are capable of reaching Tel Aviv and other cities in the densely populated center of Israel. The number of missiles PIJ has is only slightly lower than that of the ruling Hamas movement.
On Thursday, militants fired more than a dozen rockets into Israel, once again attempting to shell Tel Aviv in the morning. The Israeli Air Dome defense system has intercepted at least one missile flying toward the country’s second most populous city. Since the beginning of the campaign, more than 255 rockets have fallen on Israeli territory and about 70 were intercepted. No casualties or serious damages have been reported yet.
On the same day, Israeli forces attacked more than a hundred sites across the Gaza Strip. Altogether some 750 targets have been struck during the operation that began on Tuesday, the Israeli Army’s press service told RIA Novosti.
The Israel Defense Forces launched the operation “Protective Edge,” its first military campaign since November 2012, in response to continued air attacks carried out by Palestinian militants. For now the operation is still limited to remote air and naval strikes, but the political leaders and military commanders are openly discussing the possibility of a ground invasion, which is fraught with a sharp increase in casualties. Approximately 40,000 reservists are already being mobilized for this purpose.
