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Militant's Death Takes Gaza Death Toll To 49, Died Firing Mortars Into Israel

Of the 49 killed in Gaza, up to 16 may have been killed by rockets fired from within Gaza. The rest are believed to have been killed In Israeli strikes.

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Rockets fired by Palestinian militants toward Israel, in Gaza City.
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The death of a militant injured during the three days of fighting between Israel and militant groups in Gaza took the death toll in Gaza to 49.

Palestinian mourners held a funeral on Friday for the militant, identified as 22-year-old Anas Inshasi. His body was wrapped in the black and white flag of the Army of Islam, a small, radical faction. 

Mourners said Anas was wounded by an Israeli airstrike while firing mortar shells toward Israel.

The Army of Islam, or Jaysh al-Islam, is a Salafist jihadist group, according to Long War Journal. The BBC describes it as "a shadowy militant group dominated by Gaza's powerful Dugmush clan". 

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A total 49 people, including 17 children have died in the fighting, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. 

Israel launched a wave of airstrikes on August 5 in the face of what it said was an imminent threat by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) after one of its leaders was detained by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank earlier that week. PIJ began firing rockets at Israel hours after the initial wave of strikes. The violence ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire on Sunday.

PIJ is a Palestinian Islamist terrorist group founded in 1979 and supported by Syria and Iran, according to the Counter Extremism Project (CEP). It addst that PIJ is the second-largest terrorist group in Gaza today after Hamas. 

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"PIJ is dedicated to eradicating Israel and establishing an autonomous Islamic Palestinian state in the lands currently comprising Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza," notes CEP.

In the three days, Israeli airstrikes killed two top PIJ commanders in Gaza, and the militant group said it lost a total of 12 militants. The Israeli military says the group fired some 1,100 rockets, around 200 of which fell short in Gaza. Most of the remainder were intercepted or fell in open areas.

Several Palestinian civilians were among those killed and wounded by Israeli airstrikes, including an 11-year-old girl who died of her wounds on Thursday. Two children are being treated in the intensive care unit of a Palestinian hospital in Jerusalem.

Up to 16 Palestinians may have been killed by rockets fired from their own side that fell short. No Israelis were killed or seriously wounded in the latest flare-up.

Israel and Hamas, which is larger and more powerful than PIJ, have fought four wars and countless smaller battles since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. 

Hamas, which is opposed to Israel's existence, sat out the latest battle, apparently to preserve economic understandings with Israel that have eased a 15-year blockade imposed on the territory by Israel and Egypt. 

(With AP inputs)

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