A Palestinian woman who was five-months pregnant and her three-year-old daughter have been killed in an Israeli air strike east of Gaza City.
Medical sources in the besieged territory said 30-year-old Noor Hassan and her daughter Shahd died when their house collapsed following an Israeli air strike on a Hamas military training camp near their home.
Three other people were wounded in the attack on Sunday and Palestinian rescue services are continuing to search under the rubble.
The Israeli army said the air strikes were launched in response to a rocket that was fired into southern Israel. The rocket was reportedly intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome rocket defence system.
The army said that its planes were targeting two Hamas weapons-manufacturing sites in the area.
Following the deaths of the mother and child, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman, said: “The IDF (Israeli army) holds Hamas responsible for any act of aggression from the Gaza Strip.
“This weekend we have seen clear incitement encouraging the breach of Israel’s sovereignty, violent confrontation against Israelis and threatening the residence of southern Israel.
“The IDF will continue to act, pre-empt and defeat those that plot to harm the civilians of Israel.”
Teenagers killed
On Saturday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed two Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip during confrontations, less than 24 hours after six people were shot dead while protesting along the border with Israel.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 13-year-old Marwan Barbakh and 15-year-old Omar Othman were shot with live ammunition in eastern Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that at least 23 people had been injured in clashes with Israelis across Gaza on Saturday.
The ministry said in a post on Facebook that the total number of Palestinians killed since the start of October now stood at 20, with nine killed in the Gaza Strip, and 11 in the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem.
The deaths of Noor Hassan and her daughter bring the death toll to 22.
On Friday, Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinians protestesting along the border separating the territory from Israel.