Palestinian pregnant woman, toddler killed in Israeli airstrike, Hamas warns escalation

A five-month pregnant woman and her two-year-old daughter were killed during Israel's airstrikes on Sunday on Hamas targets in the northern Gaza Strip, amid spiraling violence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israeli war jets struck two training facilities early Sunday that belong to Hamas movement's armed wing in southern Gaza. Israel said the air strikes were in response to earlier rockets attack on southern Israel. The rockets didn't cause any damage.

Gaza health ministry said that a pregnant woman, 30, and her two-year-old daughter were killed, and three more family members injured.

The Islamic movement of Hamas considered the killing of the woman and her daughter as an indication of Israel's intent to "escalate" the situation.

Hama said Israeli "aggression on a family house in south of Gaza signals Israel's intention to escalate and convolute the situation on the ground."

Also on Sunday morning, a Palestinian woman was severely injured in a car blast at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem. Police said she drove in a stolen car on a lane for public transport, shouted "God is Great," and the car was detonated.

Police suspected it was an attempted suicide attack, but witnesses said it was just an electrical problem that ignited the fire in her car.

In the past three days, the Israeli army shot and killed nine young Palestinian men and injured 60 others in fierce clashes on borders of eastern Gaza Strip with Israel.

The Gaza clashes came after an escalating tension in the West Bank and Jerusalem since the beginning of October, which has left at least 20 Palestinians and four Israelis killed.

Violent clashes flared up in east Jerusalem four weeks ago after Palestinians protested Israelis' raiding of al-Aqsa mosque compound and conducting prayers on the Muslim holy site, contrary to the status-quo. Endit