Death toll rises to 51 as Israel pounds Gaza, including 13 children

The total number of Palestinians killed by recent Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip has risen to 51, including 13 children, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Wednesday.

"At least 51 people have been killed and nearly 451 injured in Israeli military operations since Monday," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra told Anadolu Agency.

He said two Palestinians were killed and a third was injured in an Israeli attack targeting a group of Palestinians in the northern Beit Hanoun town.

The spokesman said that 13 children and nine women had been among those killed in the latest Israeli onslaught on the embattled coastal enclave.

On Tuesday, Israel launched a military offensive-dubbed "Operation Protective Edge"-with the stated aim of staunching rocket fire from Gaza.

Israel has continued to pound the territory with airstrikes, while ground troops remain massed on the Gaza Strip's borders in advance of a possible ground assault.

Gaza-based resistance factions, meanwhile, have continued to fire rockets into Israel in response to the unrelenting airstrikes.

According to Palestinian sources, resistance factions fired around 230 rockets toward Israeli cities on Wednesday.