Hamas-led gunmen in Gaza have executed 18 Palestinians accused of helping the Israelis. <br /><br />Hooded and bound, seven of them were shot dead in front of worshippers outside a mosque in one of Gaza’s main squares, following Friday prayers.<br /><br />Television footage showed a crowd of young boys gathered where the executions took place moments afterwards, with blood still running on the street and bullet casings scattered around.<br /><br />Those deaths followed the killing of 11 alleged informers at an abandoned police station outside Gaza City, marking the third time this month that Hamas-led operatives have executed people suspected of providing intelligence to Israel.<br /><br />The latest crackdown follows an Israeli air strike that killed three senior Hamas commanders.<br /><br />Condemning those executed as spies providing intelligence to Israel, local man Mahmoud al-Ruz said: “The Jews don’t know there are resistance fighters here. The collaborators tell them.”<br /><br />Israel continues to pound Gaza, with the last ceasefire which collapsed on Tuesday, now a distant memory.<br /><br />As the Palestinian death toll rises – officials say more than 2,000 mostly civilians have been killed in the six-week war – dozens of rockets were fired into Israel on Friday.<br /><br />One hit a synagogue in the southern city of Ashdod, injuring three people.<br /><br />A mortar bomb fired from Gaza killed a four-year-old boy in a village along the border, the first Israeli child to die in the conflict. <br /><br />Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying Israel’s military operation would intensify and that Hamas would “pay a heavy price” for the attack.<br /><br />Shortly after his remarks, Palestinian officials said Israel had flattened a house in a Gaza City air strike, wounding at least 40 people.
