Israeli soldiers shot dead five Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Thursday on the bloodiest day in the coastal territory in weeks, Reuters reported. Troops killed a woman, 35, and an armed man during a raid of an extremist stronghold in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. In northern Gaza, soldiers killed three teenagers, whom Palestinians said were shepherds and the Israeli army said were tinkering with a rocket launcher. Two rockets were launched from the area earlier, damaging an Israeli apartment building. The flareup came after Egypt reported progress in efforts to free an Israeli soldier whose capture on June 25 in a cross-border raid from Gaza, sparked an Israeli offensive in which more than 215 Palestinians have been killed.
