Palestinians killed in Israel Gaza air strike

A crater at the scene of an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on 11 October, 2015Image copyrightReuters
Image captionAn Israeli air strike on a Hamas target in the Gaza Strip
Israel says its jets have hit two targets in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military said the targets were Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities, adding that the strikes were in response to two rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel.
A pregnant woman and her young daughter in a nearby house were killed, Palestinian officials said.
In the West Bank, Israeli police say a Palestinian woman set off an explosive device at a checkpoint.
She was stopped by police while driving on Sunday morning near the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.
She "shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) and detonated an explosive device", a police spokeswoman said, adding that the woman was in critical condition and a policeman was slightly wounded.
Initial reports had said the woman had died in the blast.
Following Sunday's air strikes, Israel Defense Forces' spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner said: "The IDF holds Hamas responsible for any act of aggression from the Gaza Strip."
As well as the two reported deaths, medical staff in the Zeitun sector south of Gaza City say three people are trapped in the rubble of the destroyed house.

Analysis: Yolande Knell, BBC News, Jerusalem

The latest incidents are a sign of how unrest continues at a worrying level.
Since Friday, it has spread to the Gaza Strip. The killing of a Palestinian mother and her child there follows protests near the border fence with Israel that left at least nine Palestinians, including teenagers, killed by Israeli fire.
The use of explosives by a Palestinian woman motorist in the West Bank appears to be a new departure in the recent wave of violence. This has mostly involved young Palestinians carrying out so-called "lone wolf" stabbing attacks targeting Jews.
Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces are continuing in annexed East Jerusalem and cities in the occupied West Bank. They have also spread to Arab neighbourhoods of Israel. All this contributes to fears that the situation could escalate into a wider uprising.
There have been weeks of tension over access to a site in East Jerusalem sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
Palestinians fear Israel plans to change arrangements at the al-Aqsa mosque/Temple Mount compound, where Jews are allowed to visit but not allowed to pray - something Israel insists it will continue.
Israeli police at the scene of an attack by a Palestinian youthImage copyrightEPA
Image captionPalestinians have carried out a series of stabbings of Israelis
Activists protest against the rising tension in Jerusalem, 10 Oct 2015Image copyrightAFP
Image captionThere is increasing concern about the rising violence
Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops in the West BankImage copyrightAP
Image captionThere have been fierce protests in the West Bank
Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry expressed "deep concern" over the situation.
He made separate phone calls to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In his calls earlier Mr Kerry "stressed the importance of upholding the status quo in word and deed" at the site, the state department said.
He offered his support in efforts to restore calm, but both men blamed the other side for the rising violence.
Mr Netanyahu "made it clear that he expects the PA [Palestinian Authority] to stop its wild and mendacious incitement, which is causing the current wave of terrorism",his Twitter account said.
Mr Abbas told Mr Kerry that Israel should stop settler "provocations", which he said were carried out under Israeli army protection, his office reported.
In other developments on Saturday:
  • Mr Netanyahu ordered the mobilisation of hundreds of police reservists to restore security
  • Israeli police shot dead two Palestinian youths during clashes close to the border with the Gaza Strip
  • Four Israelis were hurt in two separate stabbings - both Palestinian assailants were shot dead by Israeli troops
  • Violent protests broke out after the funeral of a Palestinian man who had been shot during unrest at the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem and later died of his injuries.
The violence has spurred talk from Hamas, which dominates Gaza, of a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
But the clashes have not yet reached the scale of previous intifadas, with no clear mass movement or leadership so far emerging.

Israel and the Palestinians

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