Four children playing football killed in Gaza

ISRAELI forces killed four Palestinian boys playing football in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip yesterday, medical workers said, during intensified attacks in response to the death of an Israeli in a rocket strike.

The deaths of the boys, aged 10, 12, 13 and 15, near the town of Jabalya, raised to 26 the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip over the past two days.

Fifteen Palestinians were killed in air strikes or by missiles yesterday, the medical workers said. An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate information.