Gaza City: An Israeli air raid in Gaza left two Palestinians dead overnight, taking the number of killed Palestinians in the seven-week conflict to 2,122, Palestinian sources said.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army said warplanes had carried out 16 raids. No rockets have been fired at Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip since early this morning.
Two mosques at Beit Hanun, in the north of the Strip, and in Gaza City were destroyed in the raids, witnesses said.
Israel`s offensive began with the stated aim of stamping out rocket attacks from Gaza and was later expanded to include the destruction of Hamas tunnels used for cross-border attacks inside Israel.
"Operation Protective Edge will continue until its aims are achieved... It may take time," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday of the offensive launched on July 8.
