MOURNERS in Gaza City held a funeral for 22-year-old Anas Inshasi today as the death toll from Israel’s three-day bombing spree over Gaza last weekend climbed to 49.

Mourners said Inshasi had been killed in an air strike while firing a mortar at Israel. Israeli forces launched a seemingly unprovoked assault on Gaza on Friday August 5, prompting the Islamic Jihad group, which it was targeting, to fire thousands of rockets into Israel in response. Egypt brokered a ceasefire that took effect last Sunday.

No Israelis were killed in the exchange, but the Palestinian dead include 17 children, with 11-year-old girl Layan al-Shaer the latest to die in hospital from her wounds on Thursday. Layan was hit by an Israeli drone in the initial surprise attack on residential Palestinian neighbourhoods.

Two other Gazan children, aged eight and 14, are fighting for their lives in intensive care in a Jerusalem hospital.