An Israeli airstrike killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her 2-year-old daughter in Gaza on Sunday as a wave of Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank, including the first using an explosive device, showed no signs of abating.
Israeli security officials said a 31-year-old woman in the West Bank detonated a gas canister in her car at a checkpoint, critically wounding herself and slightly wounding an Israeli policeman.
The attack appeared to mark the first use of an explosive device in the current round of violence following a series of stabbing and shooting assaults. The violence has unnerved a jittery Israel, and prompted the United States on Saturday to call for restraint by all sides.
The wave of attacks began weeks ago in Jerusalem and has since spread across Israel, while violent protests have erupted in the West Bank and along the Gaza border where nine Palestinians, including two children, were killed in clashes over the weekend.
The Gaza border has been largely calm since the 2014 war between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the coastal territory.
In response to renewed rocket fire toward Israel, the military said it carried out airstrikes in Gaza targeting Hamas weapons manufacturing facilities.
Ashraf Al-Kidra, a Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, said a home in southern Gaza was struck, killing 30-year-old Noor Hassan and her young daughter. He said four other Palestinians were wounded, included Hassan's husband and son.
Israel's Shin Bet security agency said police had ordered the woman in the West Bank to pull over after she was seen trailing a police vehicle. When an officer approached her car, she chanted "God is greatest" and detonated the gas canister, it said, adding that police found handwritten letters on her praising Palestinian "martyrs."
The West Bank has been increasingly tense, with near-daily violent demonstrations. At least 45 Palestinians were wounded by live bullets in clashes between university students and Israeli forces at a military checkpoint near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Israeli military said hundreds of Palestinians rolled burning tires and threw rocks at forces, who responded with 0.22 caliber rounds.
In Gaza today, Palestinians demonstrated along the Israeli border fence, throwing rocks and rolling burning tires. The Israeli military said soldiers responded by firing warning shots. The Gaza Health Ministry said four Palestinians were injured.
In downtown Jerusalem, Israeli police said they arrested three young Israeli girls suspected of attacking a Palestinian employee at a store with pepper spray. Police said it appeared to be an unprovoked attack.
