3 Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes

Israeli airstrikes killed a schoolboy and two other Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, while Gaza rocket squads fired salvos into southern Israel, deepening the worst round of violence between the sides in more than a year.       

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted rocket launchers and a Gaza health official said the 12-year-old boy, a 60-year-old farm guard and a militant were killed as the exchanges of fire entered their third day. Egyptian efforts to achieve a cease-fire faltered, spurned by the two factions in the territory responsible for the rocket fire.       

The violence has shattered a month-long lull and was touched off on Friday by an Israeli air assault that killed the commander of the Popular Resistance Committees militant group, an ally of Gaza's Hamas rulers. Since then, Israeli airstrikes have killed 16 Gazan militants and two civilians, and fighters in the territory have fired more than 120 rockets at Israel, seriously wounding two civilians.       

Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmia said the militant killed Sunday was at a rocket launching site in Gaza City. The boy was hit while walking with a friend to school in the northern city of Jebaliya and the guard died in Gaza City while walking with his dog, who was also killed, he added.