A Palestinian child has lost his life and another sustained serious injuries when an explosive device that had been left from Israel’s last military onslaught against the Gaza Strip went off in the besieged coastal enclave.
Palestinian medical sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the explosion took place in the city of Jabalia, located four kilometers (2.5 miles) north of Gaza City, on Thursday evening.
They identified the slain child as five-year-old Suhayb Saqir, adding that his brother Mus'ab, 6, was gravely injured in the blast. The injured child was later taken to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza Strip for treatment.
More than 7,000 unexploded bombs were left throughout the Gaza Strip following the Israeli military attacks against the impoverished Palestinian territory in summer 2014.
A report, released by the British NGO Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) last year, showed that the use of explosive artillery by Israeli forces in the 2014 war on Gaza had increased by over 530 percent compared to the Israeli regime’s military offensive on the coastal enclave six years earlier.
It further revealed that Israeli forces increased their firing of high explosive artillery by 533 percent during the 2014 war compared to the military aggression in 2008-2009.
The 2014 military aggression killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. Over 11,100 others – including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people – were also wounded in the Israeli war.