An Israeli unmanned plane has reportedly launched a missile attack on the southern Gaza Strip, inflicting injuries on six Palestinians.

The Thursday drone strike hit a vehicle that was travelling in the southern city of Rafah along the coastal sliver’s border with Egypt, Xinhua reported.

It followed several aerial assaults across the besieged enclave, which was reported to have caused no casualties.

Earlier on Wednesday, Israel’s F-16 warplanes and Apache helicopters carried out multiple airstrikes across the Gaza Strip.

In June 2007, Israel and Egypt placed the territory under siege and imposed an unprecedented blockade on nearly all movement and supplies in and out of the coastal strip.

Poverty, unemployment, lack of medicine and medical equipment are the main issues in the Gaza Strip, while most Palestinian children are physically stunted from malnutrition.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian crisis for Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.

Even human rights groups have criticized the international community for its silence on the siege on Gaza and the 22-day Israeli war in December 2008 that shattered the stagnant economy of the territory.

The offensives killed more than 1,400 Gazans and inflicted a damage of above $1.6 billion on the territory’s economy.

With poverty rate at almost 70 percent and unemployment hovering around 50 percent, many Gazans live on handouts from relatives and local aid agencies as they spend most of their dwindling monthly income on food.

(Press TV)