An Israeli air strike in Gaza killed a pregnant woman and her toddler and Hamas warned the Jewish state against "foolishness" Sunday as Palestinian unrest spun further toward a full-scale uprising.
After days of
unrest elsewhere, Gaza has been drawn into the violence since Friday,
with clashes along the border leaving nine Palestinians dead, including
teenagers, from Israeli fire.
Overnight,
Israel said it targeted "two Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities"
after Gaza militants fired two rockets and following attempts by
Palestinians to violently cross the border.
One of the rockets had hit an open field in southern Israel and the other was intercepted.Israel's retaliatory air strikes demolished a house in the northern area of Zeitun, killing Nur Hassan, 30, and her two-year-old daughter Rahaf, Gaza medics said, and trapping three others under the ruins.
Border
clashes that broke out Friday came as Hamas's chief in Gaza, Ismail
Haniya, called the overall violence an intifada and urged further
unrest.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, the enclave hit by three wars with Israel since 2008, remains deeply divided from president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank-based Fatah.
It was unclear whether Hamas or another group fired the rockets. Salafists claiming links to the Islamic State group have claimed recent rocket fire from Gaza, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such acts.
In response to the air strike, a Hamas spokesman said "this shows the occupation's desire to escalate."
"We warn the occupation against continuing this foolishness," said Sami Abu Zuhri.
- Explosion near Jerusalem -
Also on Sunday morning, Israeli security forces said they foiled an attack when an explosion seriously wounded a Palestinian woman and lightly injured an Israeli policeman.
The policeman had spotted a "suspicious" vehicle close to the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim near Jerusalem and ordered the 31-year-old woman to stop.
She exited the car and the explosives inside it detonated, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.
The woman, from Jericho in the West Bank, shouted "God is great" in Arabic before the explosion went off.
"It
was a female terrorist that intended to make her way into Jerusalem
this morning," said Rosenfeld, declining to provide further details.
Photos distributed by police indicated the blast was not especially powerful, with the car still intact.
Explosives
had not been used in the week of violence that has led to an Israeli
crackdown, with a wave of stabbings sparking fear among Israelis.
A
settler couple was also shot dead in the West Bank on October 1 in
front of their children and rioting has shaken annexed east Jerusalem
and the occupied West Bank.
While Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas have sought to avoid an escalation,
frustrated Palestinian youths have defied efforts to restore calm.
Source: AFP
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