Gaza official: Airstrike kills pregnant woman, child
Israel is fighting ‘wave of terror’ prime minister says, as violence continues
An Israeli airstrike on a home in Gaza killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her 2-year-old child Sunday, a Gazan official said, as weeks of violence between Israel and Palestinians escalated from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s military said it carried out airstrikes in Gaza targeting Hamas weapons manufacturing facilities in response to renewed rocket fire toward Israel, the Associated Press reported.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Kidra said Noor Hassan, 30, and her toddler daughter were killed in a strike. He said four others were wounded, including Hassan’s husband and son, the AP reported.
In the West Bank, a Palestinian woman was critically injured after a bomb detonated in her car after she left the vehicle, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. He said a police officer was slightly injured in the attack. It was the first use of explosives in the current round of violence, which has mainly been confined to stabbings and shootings.
Saturday, two knife-wielding Palestinians were shot dead by police during separate attacks in Jerusalem and two others died during demonstrations near a Gaza border fence.
Addressing his Cabinet Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country was fighting a “wave of terror” fueled by “systematic, untrue incitement” by the Palestinian Au-
(The car bomb) was the first use of explosives in the current round of violence.
thority in the West Bank and the Islamic Movement in Israel.
He said he will hold consultations to discuss sanctions against the Islamic Movement, which runs education and religious services for Arab citizens of Israel.
He said the Islamic Movement, along with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, is responsible for “spreading lies” about Israel’s supposed intentions regarding a holy site in Jerusalem that is sacred to Muslims and Jews, and singled out an Arab lawmaker — Hanin Zoabi — who he said called on worshipers to ascend to the site to prevent an “Israeli plot of bloodletting of East Jerusalem residents,” according to the news agency.
Netanyahu said it amounted to incitement to violence and that he asked the attorney general to open a criminal investigation against Zoabi, the AP reported.
Hamas, branded a terrorist group by Israel and the United States, governs Gaza.