Five Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli raids on Gaza, Palestinian sources confirmed.

The latest victims were two children killed by a tank shell which was fired at their home in the al-Qara area east of the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Gaza on Friday morning. According to medics, the bodies of seven-year-old Ahmad al-Smari and his cousin, Muhammad al-Smari, 8, were shredded from the heat of the explosion.

Three other Palestinians were killed on Thursday near the Al-Burij refugee camp by Israeli tank fire, Palestinian security sources said. No further information was provided about the victims’ names.

Israeli military sources claimed that soldiers opened fire at four Palestinians carrying an explosive device.

These latest deaths raised the death toll to 3522 Palestinians killed since September 2000, including 850 children.

In other news, Israeli troops demolished homes in the Al-Askar refugee camp in Nablus, amongst them the home of the Palestinian bomber who blew himself up in AlKarma market in TelAviv.

All the entrances to the occupied city have been closed off by Israeli forces, preventing anyone from entering or leaving the devastated city in the West Bank.