Israeli Airstrike Kills Woman and Child in Gaza
by VOA News October 11, 2015
Israel carried out an airstrike early Sunday in the Gaza Strip that killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her young daughter.
The Israeli military said the strike was conducted in response to rocket attacks from Gaza and targeted two Hamas weapons manufacturing facilities. It reported Saturday that a rocket was intercepted over Hof Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system.
Medics in Gaza said the woman and child died when the building they were in collapsed from the strike. Several other people were injured.
Later Sunday, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli forces during a clash at a checkpoint north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Ramallah Government Hospital director Ahmed Bitawi said 13-year-old Ahmad Sharake died from three live bullets to the head, neck and chest. and that approximately 20 Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets in the same clash near the Jewish settlement of Beit El.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
Separately, Israel's Shin Bet security agency said an explosive device set off by a Palestinian woman in the West Bank that wounded a police officer and the attacker was a gas canister, not a bomb.
The 31-year-old woman set off the explosion in her vehicle, critically wounding herself and lightly wounding the officer.
It was the first use of an explosive device in the current round of violence, which has mostly consisted of stabbing and shooting attacks against Israelis in Jerusalem, the West Bank and elsewhere.
The violence followed yet more stabbing attacks in the Old City area of East Jerusalem on Saturday. In the first attack, a 16-year-old stabbed two Israelis before being shot dead by police. Later, a 19-year-old stabbed two police officers before also being shot dead.
The wave of attacks in East Jerusalem has taken place around a holy site revered by Muslims as the al-Aqsa mosque and by Jews as the Temple Mount.
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