A total of 15 Palestinians were killed and 27 injured in Israeli air and ground assault in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medical sources said.

Jom'aa al-Saqqa, chief of emergency at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City, said that 13 Palestinians were killed in the northern Gaza Strip and two Palestinians were killed near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Palestinian security sources said that an Israeli pilotless drone fired one missile at a group of Palestinians militants in al- Essra neighborhood in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia.

Palestinian medics at Shiffa Hospital in Gaza City said that seven Palestinians were killed and ten were wounded, three of them in critical conditions, in the air strke.

Meanwhile, two Palestinians, including a militant and a bystander, were killed in shootout between Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers north of the town, security sources said.

In addition, two Palestinians were killed and seven wounded after an Israeli Apache helicopter fired a missile at a group of militants in the southeastern Gaza Strip on Thursday.

An Islamic Jihad (Holy War) spokesman said that two militants of the group were killed while launching attack on an Israeli armored vehicle in the village of Abbassan, east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis.

Four more Palestinians were killed in predawn different Israeli air raids on the northern Gaza Strip.

Source: Xinhua