Mother and baby victims of Israel and Gaza missile attacks

A SERIES of Israeli strikes on Gaza yesterday left three people dead, including a pregnant woman and her one-yearold daughter, while at least seven were wounded after Palestinian militants fired scores of rockets into Israel.

The violence could threaten the latest round of indirect negotiations between the two sides, which are being brokered by Egypt.

Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel overnight and into yesterday morning after Israel struck a Hamas military post in Gaza, which it said was in response to militants firing on its troops at the border.

One long-range rocket hit an uninhabited area outside Bersheeba. It was the first time air raid sirens had been heard in the largest city in southern Israel since the last war in 2014.

Meanwhile, the victims of the Israeli strikes were identified by Gaza’s health ministry as Hamas fighter Ali Ghandour, 23-year-old Enas Khamash

‘[Hamas] need to come to the conclusion that nothing good will come of attacking Israel’

and her daughter Bayan. They were killed in separate incidents.

Kamal Khamash, Enas’ brother-inlaw, said the family was asleep when a rocket hit the house, killing the mother and daughter instantly.

“This is a blatant crime and Israel is responsible for it,” he said.

Lt Col Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli Defence Forces spokesman, said it was unfortunate there were civilian deaths but that Hamas were to blame and that the group “needed to come to the conclusion that nothing good will come of attacking Israel”.

“It is unclear what Hamas is trying to do,” Lt Col Conricus told The Daily Telegraph. “Attacking Israeli civilians is not in their interest and we are ready, committed and equipped to take action to defend our citizens.”

Two Thai labourers were among seven people wounded in Israel by rocket fire on Sderot and Ashkelon.

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN special envoy, said he was “deeply alarmed” by “multiple rockets fired toward communities in southern Israel” and appealed for a de-escalation from both sides.

Some 163 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since late March, when Hamas began organising protests along the Gaza border fence.