A 5-year-old Palestinian girl was killed in the Israeli shelling on the Gaza Strip on Monday, which has already claimed the lives of five other Palestinians, Palestinian medics said.

Khetam Taieh, died on Monday night of her wounds sustained when an Israeli shell landed earlier in the day in front of the apartment building where her family was living.

The building is located in a residential district called al- Nada, which houses about 400 Palestinian families, close to the northern Gaza border with Israel.

The incident brought to six the total death toll of Palestinians in Israeli Gaza shelling on Monday.

Earlier in the day, a 68-year-old Palestinian woman and her 13- year-old grandson were killed when an Israeli shell hit their donkey cart in the same area.

Meanwhile, three Palestinians including an off-duty security officer were killed on Monday when an Israeli artillery shell hit an area near an elementary school in Beit Lahiya town in the northern Gaza Strip.

Israel said that the shelling was targeting rocket launch pads used by Palestinian militants. The Israeli army said that Palestinian militants were launching rockets from relatively-high residential buildings into Israel.

Dozens of Palestinians families in al-Nada were seen leaving their houses, carrying luggage and personal belongings, after the Israeli army warned residents that their home would be targeted.

"The Israeli army threatened us more than once that our houses would be bombed on the pretext that rockets were fired from nearby areas," a local resident said when getting into his car to drive away. He said he was leaving the area for another place.

Ahmed Abu Thraia, also a resident in al-Nada, said that the Israeli army "has frequently struck the area and the life here has become very hard."

"The situation is intolerable and many were killed," he said in a grievous voice, while stuffing a bag with clothes.

The front part of his apartment building was totally destroyed by Israeli shells.

Local Palestinian residents appealed for an immediate international intervention to stop Israel from striking civilian targets.

"The shrapnel fell in every corner of my house. I can't stay here to lose all my children," said a man in his forties.

The Israeli army said that the shelling came in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.

In addition, Israeli warplanes fired at least one missile at an empty Palestinian house in Gaza City on Monday, severely damaging the house but causing no casualties, Palestinian security sources said.

Israel said the house, located in al-Zaitoun neighborhood in southeast Gaza City, was a rocket warehouse of the Islamic Jihad ( Holy War).

The Israeli army has said that any building or house used to store weapons will be targets of attacks.

Israel has increased strikes on southern and eastern Gaza in recent days, part of a four-week-old large-scale air and ground offensive in Gaza aimed at freeing an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants on June 25 and halting Palestinian rocket attacks.

Over 100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 others wounded in the violence.

Source: Xinhua