A pregnant woman and her young daughter have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza while a 13-year-old boy was shot dead in clashes in the West Bank as a wave of violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories fuelled fears of a wider escalation.

Israeli forces killed the boy on Sunday during clashes south of al-Bireh in the Ramallah district, medics said. The child, identified as Ahmad Sharaka, was shot in the neck with a live round, medics said.

He was taken to the Palestinian medical complex in Ramallah for surgery. He later died of his wounds.

Ahmad’s death brings the total number of Palestinians killed since the beginning of October to 24. He is also the third 13-year-old to be shot dead by Israeli forces in the same period.

Earlier on Sunday, the house where Nur Hassan, 30, and her daughter Rahaf lived in Gaza City was brought down as Israeli jets hit two alleged weapons sites belonging to Hamas in response to the launching of two rockets into Israel.

Witnesses said a powerful explosion occurred at one of the sites, causing a nearby house to collapse while the occupants were asleep inside. A five-year-old boy and a man were wounded.

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.

The wave of violence also saw an Israeli police officer wounded on Sunday in a car explosion at an Israeli checkpoint when a Palestinian woman allegedly detonated explosives in her car near the settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police said officers noticed a “suspicious vehicle” being driven toward Jerusalem in a public transport-only lane approaching a checkpoint.

Palestinian protester kicks a burning tyre during clashes with Israeli troops near Nablus. Photograph: Reuters

The injured police officer, Moshe Chen, said he gestured for her to stop the car and she then yelled “Allahu Akbar”, a phrase in Arabic meaning “God is great” and sometimes used by Islamic protesters, and detonated a bomb in her car.

A Palestinian was later shot in the leg with a live round during the protest in the al-Balu area of southern al-Bireh, while another was injured by a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Two others reportedly suffered excessive tear gas inhalation at the protest. Israeli bulldozers have reportedly removed large objects in the area to remove cover for Palestinian protesters.



Four people were stabbed on Sunday night near Hadera in northern Israel. The victims were a 19-year-old who was critically wounded, a 20-year-old moderately wounded, as well as a 14-year-old and a 45-year-old, who both suffered slight wounds during the incident.

The suspect was apprehended by Israeli police and is a 20-year-old Palestinian citizen of Israel.



Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, held a meeting late on Sunday to discuss possible sanctions on an Islamic group running education and religious services in northern Israel which he claimed had been inciting violence.

The group – the Islamic Movement – earlier this year encouraged Palestinian citizens of Israel not to vote in the general election.

Netanyahu said the group had been spreading misinformation about Israel’s intentions at the compound housing the Al-Aqsa mosque, known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews.

“I will not tolerate internal incitement,” he said. “We will use all means at our disposal against the instigators from any direction.”

The deputy head of the Islamic movement’s northern branch, Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib, blamed Netanyahu for the escalation.

“He [Netanyahu] is blaming the Islamic movement because of their steadfastness, he always blames others for his failure. Netanyahu can legislate and take harsher measures against us – but it will not prevent us.



“Al-Aqsa is ours, we will continue to serve it and nothing can stop us.”

Khatib said the banning of Muslim groups who acted as guardians to the mosque, the mourabitoun and the mourabotat, had stoked tensions in east Jerusalem. It remains to be seen if Netanyahu’s harsher measures on the Islamic movement will include further bans on entering al-Aqsa or punitive measures for alleged incitement.

Netanyahu also singled out Haneen Zoabi, an Arab member of the Knesset, calling for a criminal probe by the attorney general for comments she made in Hamas’s official publication al-Risala.

She allegedly said: “Hundreds of thousands of worshippers should go to al-Aqsa in order to face down an Israeli plot for the blood of east Jerusalem residents.

“Today there are only actions by individuals and what is needed is popular support. If only individual attacks continue without popular support, they will sputter out within a few days.”