Fourteen Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded in Israeli air and ground offensives northeast of Gaza City on Wednesday, medics in Gaza City's Shiffa Hospital said.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency of the Health Ministry, told reporters that 14 Palestinians were killed -- two children, five civilians and seven militants, and more that 40 were injured, six in serious condition.

He said that of the total, two Palestinian militants were killed in a fresh Israeli airstrike on a group of Palestinian militants northeast of Gaza City, adding that two others were moderately injured.

He said that two were killed in the afternoon, and two others were killed at noon, and eight were killed in the morning.

Palestinian security sources said that dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles, backed by aircraft and unmanned drones, stormed northeast of Gaza City at predawn on Wednesday.

The sources said that Israeli aircraft carried out eight airstrikes on militants who were trying to reach the area to clash with Israeli forces.

More than 160 Palestinians have been killed and more than 500 wounded since the beginning of Israeli offensives on the Gaza Strip on June 28 in a bid to free a captive soldier and stop Palestinian rocket attacks.

On June 25, three militant groups attacked an Israeli army post southeast of the Gaza Strip, killing two soldiers and abducting a third one.

Source: Xinhua