Israeli shelling of Gaza hospital kills 4

Palestinians fleeing in a vehicle from Israeli shelling in Bet Lahiya look up as a fighter jet flies overhead in northern Gaza Strip July 21, 2014.[Photo/Agencies]

GAZA - The Israeli army artillery on Monday shelled a hospital in the central Gaza Strip, killing four Palestinians and wounding 50 others, most of whom are paramedics, medics and witnesses said.

Ashraf al-Qedra, the Gaza Health Ministry spokesman, said that the al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Ballah was hit by several artillery shells fired from the Israeli tanks stationed near the eastern borders between the central Gaza Strip and Israel.

"Four were killed and 50 wounded, most of whom are paramedics, nurses and civilians, in the Israeli tank shelling on the hospital, " al-Qedra told reporters.

He earlier said that three Palestinians were killed after artillery shelling on Shaja'eya neighborhood renewed on Monday afternoon.

Al-Qedra had also said that five Palestinian civilians, three children and two women, were killed, including four from the same family, in an Israeli airstrike on an apartment in a building in northwest Gaza city.

Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said in separate text messages that gun battles on the ground continued in northern, eastern and central Gaza Strip. It also said that it fired more rockets into northern, central and southern Israel.

The group said in a text message that 10 of its militants were killed in a fierce gun battle east of the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun "after heavy strikes and losses caused to the enemy. "

Israeli war jets and tanks continued their intensive strikes on more houses, lands, cars and hospitals all over the Gaza Strip, according to witnesses and security officials in Gaza.

The Health Ministry said in an emailed press statement that the death toll rose to 526 and more than 3,200 were injured since the beginning of the Israeli offensive on Gaza on July 8.

The Housing Ministry said that more than 500 residential houses were destroyed during the ongoing Israeli war on the coastal enclave.