Israeli warplanes pummelled Gaza with 50 air strikes that killed five Palestinians Saturday as militants slammed 23 rockets into Israel, defying international efforts to find a fresh ceasefire. Tens of thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through central London and Cape Town, condemning Israel's one-month military assault on 1.8 million Palestinians in Gaza.
Gaza emergency services said five men were killed in Israeli raids - two travelling by motorcycle through Al-Maghazi refugee camp and three pulled from the rubble of Al-Qassam mosque in the middle of the enclave. The Palestinian interior ministry said Israeli jets destroyed three mosques. At least two of them were considered close to Hamas. Resident Ibrahim Taweel said the Israeli military telephoned him at 3am, warning him to evacuate his nearby home five minutes before the mosque was attacked.
"I couldn't tell all my neighbours, so I evacuated myself and my neighbour and after five minutes an F-16 fired one rocket and after that a bigger rocket destroyed the mosque," he said. The army said 23 rockets rained on Israel, bringing to 61 the number of projectiles launched at the Jewish state since a 72-hour truce ended on Friday.
One Israeli civilian and a soldier were wounded on Friday. Israel said it had carried out more than 100 strikes in Gaza since Friday, 49 of them since midnight, targeting those responsible for the rocket fire. In the occupied West Bank, fresh clashes broke out after the funerals of two Palestinian men shot dead by Israeli troops during protests against the Gaza operation on Friday, witnesses said.
Palestinian youths threw stones and Israeli troops responded with tear gas and stun grenades. The 72-hour truce collapsed after mediators in Cairo failed to extend a ceasefire when it expired on Friday morning as Israel accused Hamas of breaching the quiet with pre-dawn rocket attacks. The conflict has now killed at least 1,911 Palestinians and 67 people on the Israeli side, almost all soldiers, since July 8. The United Nations says at least 1,354 of the Palestinian dead were civilians, including 447 children. In London, up to 150,000 protesters packed Oxford Street, marching to the US embassy and on to Hyde Park, many of them chanting "Free, Free Palestine" and holding up banners saying "UK - Stop Arming Israel".
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