Pregnant Palestinian and child die in Israeli air raid
11/10/2015| IslamWeb
A Palestinian woman who was five-months pregnant and her three-year-old daughter have been killed in an Israeli air strike east of Gaza City.
Medical sources in the besieged territory said 30-year-old Noor Hassan and her daughter Shahd died when their house collapsed following an Israeli air strike on a Hamas military training camp near their home.
Three other people were wounded in the attack on Sunday, and Palestinian rescue services are continuing to search under the rubble.
The Israeli army said the air strikes were launched in response to a rocket that was fired into southern Israel. The rocket was reportedly intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system.
The army said that its planes were targeting two Hamas weapons-manufacturing sites in the area.
Following the deaths of the mother and child, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said: "The IDF [Israeli army] holds Hamas responsible for any act of aggression from the Gaza Strip.
"This weekend, we have seen clear incitement encouraging the breach of Israel's sovereignty, violent confrontation against Israelis, and threatening the residents of southern Israel.
"The IDF will continue to act, pre-empt and defeat those that plot to harm the civilians of Israel."
Teenagers killed
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip during confrontations, less than 24 hours after six people were shot dead while protesting along the border with Israel.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 13-year-old Marwan Barbakh and 15-year-old Omar Othman were shot with live ammunition in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least 23 people had been injured in clashes with Israelis across Gaza on Saturday.
The ministry said in a post on Facebook that the total number of Palestinians killed since the start of October now stood at 20, with nine killed in the Gaza Strip, and 11 in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
The deaths of Noor Hassan and her daughter bring the death toll to 22.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinians protesting along the border separating the territory from Israel.
Among those killed on Friday was a 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot at a demonstration in the al-Faraheen village, southeast of Gaza City.
The Israeli army claimed there had been "multiple violent attempts to storm the border fence" and "a thousand rioters infiltrated the buffer zone", throwing a "grenade, rocks and rolled burning tyres" at the soldiers".
East Jerusalem deaths
The deaths of the two teenagers in Gaza came shortly after three Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in East Jerusalem after reportedly attacking Israelis.
The dead included a 16-year-old who was shot dead by Israeli police after stabbing two men, and a member of Hamas who opened fire on Israeli paramilitary police during a clash in the Shuafat refugee camp.
Another Palestinian was shot dead after a stabbing attack against Israeli police officers. The incident left three Israeli police officers injured, one seriously after a possible "friendly fire" incident.
A Palestinian who was shot by Israeli forces in Hebron on Thursday succumbed to his injuries two days later.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said two Palestinians were being treated for head injuries in Bethlehem after being hit by tear gas canisters fired by Israelis during protests there.
Al-Aqsa tensions
The recent violence has been fuelled by Palestinian fears that Israeli hardliners are trying to take control of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, one of Islam's holiest sites.
Those fears have grown after visits by Jewish groups, including politicians, to the site.
PHOTO CAPTION
A Palestinian youth carries a wounded person during clashes with Israeli troops on the Nahel Oz border in the east of Al Shejaeiya neighborhood of Gaza City, 10 October 2015.
Al-Jazeera