GAZA CITY: An Israeli air strike in Gaza killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her toddler, drawing a warning yesterday from Islamist movement Hamas, as unrest spun further towards a full-scale uprising. After days of unrest in the West Bank and Israel, Gaza has been drawn into the violence since Friday, with clashes along the border leaving nine Palestinians dead from Israeli fire. Israel's military said it targeted "two Hamas weapon manufacturing facilities" overnight after Gaza militants fired two rockets and following Palestinian attempts to infiltrate southern Israel. One rocket hit an open field in southern Israel and the other was intercepted.
Israel's retaliatory air strikes demolished a house in the northern Gaza area of Zeitun, killing Nour Hassan, 30, and her two-year-old daughter Rahaf, Gaza medics said. The Hamas chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, has branded the spiralling violence an "intifada" and called for further unrest. In fresh clashes on the border in central and northern Gaza, Israeli soldiers fired warning shots in the air to try to disperse hundreds of stone throwing Palestinians, a military spokeswoman said.
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. Hamas, which rules Gaza, the enclave hit by three devastating wars with Israel since 2008, remains deeply at odds with president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. It was unclear whether Hamas or another group fired the rockets on Saturday night. Salafists claiming links to the Islamic State jihadist group have said they were behind recent rocket fire from Gaza, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such acts as the main power in the territory.
Yesterday morning, Israeli security forces said they foiled a major attack when an explosion seriously wounded a Palestinian woman and lightly injured an Israeli policeman. The policeman had spotted a "suspicious" vehicle at a checkpoint between the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim and Jerusalem and ordered the woman, identified as 31-year-old Israa Jaabis, to stop. Jaabis shouted "Allah Akbar" (God is greatest) before the explosion went off, according to the security forces.
The Shin Bet internal security agency said Jaabis had tried to ignite a gas cylinder and was carrying leaflets in support of Palestinians killed in clashes with Israeli forces. Explosives had not previously been used in violence since the start of the month during which a wave of stabbings has sparked fear among Israelis. Fourteen stabbing attacks have targeted Jews since October 3, when a Palestinian murdered two Israelis in east Jerusalem's Old City.
Two days earlier in the West Bank, a Jewish settler couple was shot dead in front of their children, and violent protests have since shaken the occupied territory as well as annexed east Jerusalem. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas have sought to avoid an escalation, frustrated Palestinian youths have defied efforts to restore calm.
Rioting has seen Palestinians throwing stones and firebombs at Israeli forces, who have responded with live fire, rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades. Yesterday, hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces at Hawara checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus, and medics reported several Israelis in their cars lightly injured in stone throwing incidents across the territory. Netanyahu has ordered the emergency call-up of reserve border police companies to reinforce officers in east Jerusalem and throughout Israel.
Yesterday, the cabinet approved a four-year minimum prison term for people convicted of throwing stones at moving cars. With international concern mounting over the violence, French President Francois Hollande's office said: "Everything must be done to... end this cycle which has already caused too many victims". Both Abbas and Netanyahu have spoken with US Secretary of State John Kerry, each pinning the blame on the other side. Netanyahu said he told Kerry he expected the Palestinian Authority to stop its "wild and mendacious incitement, which is causing the current wave of terrorism". Abbas said he reiterated the need for Israeli authorities to stop giving cover to "settler provocations, carried out under the army's protection". - AFP