Palestinian Health Ministry said Wednesday that 10 Palestinians were killed and 40 others wounded in an earlier Israeli army thrust into northeast Gaza City.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency in the ministry, told reporters that the 10 killed people included two children, three civilians and five militants and six are in serious conditions among the 40 injured.

Earlier reports said that at least eight Palestinians were killed and 21 wounded on Wednesday in a series of Israeli airstrikes and tanks shelling on north-east Gaza City.

Palestinian security sources said later that two more Palestinians were killed in a fresh Israeli airstrike on Palestinian militants in al-Sha'af neighborhood northeast of Gaza City.

The sources said that the Israeli army aircrafts had carried out eight air raids on the area, targeting Palestinian militants who try to reach the area and confront the Israeli army ground forces that rolled into the neighborhood.

According to the Palestinian security sources, dozens of Israeli army tanks, bulldozers, armored vehicles and personnel carries rolled into al-Sha'f neighborhood, northeast of Gaza City amid intensive gunfire.

The Israeli ground incursion into the area is part of an ongoing Israeli military large-scale offensive on the Gaza Strip since June 25 when an Israeli soldier was abducted by militants led by Hamas military wing in the Gaza Strip.

Israel said the aim of the operation is to rein on Palestinian militants to force them to release the captive soldier and to stop launching homemade rockets from the area at southern Israel.

Source: Xinhua