Israeli air strike kills 3 Palestinian children

Three Palestinian children were killed on Sunday by an Israeli air strike near the eastern border of the Gaza Strip, according to the blockaded enclave's Health Ministry.

"The ambulance crews transported bodies of three children aged between 12 and 14 from the site of the Israeli air strike in the eastern region of southern Gaza," ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qidra said in a statement.

The children were transferred to Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah in central Gaza, Al Qidra added.

The Israeli army claimed that "the children were trying to tamper with the security fence and apparently planted an explosive device".

For the last seven months, Palestinians in Gaza have been staging regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone to demand the right to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Since the rallies began on March 30, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.