Filed on October 11, 2015 | Last updated on October 11, 2015 at 10.37 pm

23 Palestinians have died in 12 days of bloodshed

An Israeli air strike killed a Palestinian mother and daughter in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and police, confronting a surge of stabbing attacks in Israel, said they foiled an attempt to drive a car bomb into Jerusalem.

Four Israelis and 23 Palestinians have died in 12 days of bloodshed that has spread from Jerusalem and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Israel's interior and Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Israel said its aircraft targeted a Hamas facility in Gaza Strip after cross-border rocket fire.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, the enclave hit by three wars with Israel since 2008, remains deeply divided from president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank-based Fatah.

It was unclear whether Hamas or another group fired the rockets. Salafists claiming links to the Daesh group have claimed recent rocket fire from Gaza, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such acts. 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.

Palestinian medical officials said a pregnant woman and her three-year-old daughter living near the site were killed when their house collapsed.

On a West Bank road leading to Jerusalem, police pulled over a car driven by a Palestinian woman who they said shouted "God is great" and detonated an explosive when an officer approached. The woman was seriously wounded and the officer was also hurt.

"We foiled a car bomb attack," Rafi Cohen, a police commander, told reporters at the scene. "We have no doubt the woman terrorist who drove the vehicle intended to reach Jerusalem." The car was only slightly damaged by the blast and Cohen said there were more explosives still in the vehicle.

He declined to elaborate but Army Radio reported that gas canisters were found inside.

Palestinians have so far not used bombs - a hallmark of their second uprising, from 2000 to 2005 - in the current violence, which Israeli leaders have described as a "wave of terror" falling short of an organised "Intifada".

Against a backdrop of protests over Jewish access to Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, Palestinians have been attacking Israelis with knives, rocks and, on at least one occasion, guns.

Palestinians see increasing visits over the past year by Jewish groups and right-wing lawmakers to the Al Aqsa plaza as eroding Muslim religious control of the compound.

Israel has said repeatedly it has no intention of allowing any change to the status quo under which Jews are allowed to visit the site but non-Muslim prayer is banned. The almost daily knife attacks between Israeli soldiers and stone-throwing Palestinians have not reached the intensity of past Palestinian uprisings, but the rapid escalation has stirred talk of a third "Intifada".

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Abbas have sought to avoid an escalation, frustrated Palestinian youths have defied efforts to restore calm.

The office of French President Francois Hollande said that "everything must be done to... end this cycle (of violence) which has already caused too many victims".

Both Abbas and Netanyahu have spoken with US Secretary of State John Kerry, each putting the blame for the situation on the other.

Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defence official, said security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, was continuing.- Agencies

"The Palestinian Authority is not interested in matters deteriorating, because then they would be swallowed up in the cloud of violence and the fire and terror that is liable to develop," he told Army Radio.