A member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society carries an injured child at an hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, following an Israeli air strike before a five-hour truce went into effect on Thursday.

Israeli tank fire killed three people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, medics said, as the overall death toll from 10 days of violence in the Palestinian territory rose to 231.

One Israeli has also been killed by rockets fired by Palestinian militants.

Gaza emergency services spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said the three, all men in their 20s, were killed in southern Rafah shortly before 10:00 am (0700 GMT).

Their deaths came after another seven people were killed overnight.

Two men were killed in Gaza City, another two in Deir al-Balah and a fifth in northern Beit Lahiya.

One man was also killed in southern Khan Yunis and another in Rafah, also in the south, Qudra said.

Another man injured by a strike in Rafah on Wednesday died of his wounds on Thursday.

In addition, 1,690 people had been injured during conflict, Qudra said.

Israel and the Hamas movement announced Thursday they were observing a five-hour humanitarian truce called for by the United Nations.

According to figures provided by the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), more than 80 percent of the conflict’s victims have been civilians.

So far, one person has been killed in Israel — a civilian who died on Tuesday evening in a rocket strike near the Erez crossing, medics said. At least four Israelis have been seriously wounded.

 
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