GAZA CITY, Sept 30 (AFP) - At least seven Palestinians were killed by an Israeli tank shell in the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip Thursday, Palestinian hospital and security sources told AFP.
"We have received at least seven bodies and 10 injured people," Mahmud al-Assali, head of Jabaliya's Kamal Edwan hospital told AFP.
Another eight wounded were taken to another hospital. Medics said most of the injured, were teenagers and children.
Witnesses said the shell fell on a group of Palestinians who had gathered at the entrance to the camp.
An Israeli military source confirmed troops had fired a tank shell towards a "densely populated market near a school in Jabaliya" after two incidents in which Palestinian militants had used the area as cover for firing at Israeli troops.
"The soldiers shot one tank shell at the source of fire in that area," the source said, adding that three Israeli soldiers had been lightly injured in area earlier.
The latest violence raised the death toll to 27 Palestinians and five Israelis killed since the army moved en masse into the northern Gaza Strip late on Tuesday in a bid to stop Palestinian rocket fire.
The deaths bring to 4,382 the number of people killed since the beginning of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, four years ago, including 3,358 Palestinians and 953 Israelis, according to an AFP count.