Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

    GAZA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian death toll on Saturday rose to six during Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, medical sources said.

    Jom'aa al-Saqqa, chief of emergency in Gaza City's Shiffa hospital, said that three were shot dead in fresh clashes with Israeli troops in eastern Gaza while the other three died of their wounds sustained in northern Gaza in the last two days.

    He said that shortly after Israeli tanks and armored vehicles withdrew on Saturday morning from areas they seized in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, Palestinian medics found a 19-year-old Palestinian dead.

    He said that the young man was physically disable and died of his wounds sustained in an Israeli air strike on Friday.

    Israeli army tanks intruded into the Shajaiyeh neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Gaza City on Saturday morning. About seven Palestinians were killed on Friday and about 20 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed on Thursday, the most bloody single day since Israel launched massive ground offensive in the Gaza Strip on June 28 to rescue an Israeli soldier kidnapped by Palestinian militants and halt rocket fired from Gaza. Enditem