A pregnant Palestinian woman and her three-year-old daughter were killed when an Israeli strike on a Hamas target in Gaza hit their house on Sunday.
The 30-year-old woman, named by Al Jazeera as Noor Hassan, was thought to be five months pregnant. She and her daughter, Shahd, died as a powerful explosion caused their house to collapse as they slept inside, witnesses described.
A five-year-old boy and a man were also injured in the strike, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.
The Israeli military said that it had targeted two Hamas weapons manufacturing sites in Gaza after rockets were fired into Israel on Saturday. No group has taken responsibility for Saturday's strike, but Israel said it holds Hamas responsible for any attacks from Gaza, Reuters reported.
"This weekend, we have seen clear incitement encouraging the breach of Israel's sovereignty, violent confrontation against Israelis, and threatening the residents of southern Israel," Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a spokesperson for the Israeli army said. "The IDF will continue to act, pre-empt and defeat those that plot to harm the civilians of Israel."
As violent attacks in Israel and the Palestinian territories continue to escalate, people in the region look on in trepidation.
Many Israelis and Palestinians have been killed as twelve days of violence has ensued in Jerusalem with Israelis being attacked by Palestinian assailants using knifes and guns and young Palestinian protesters being killed in clashes with Israeli authorities.
"We are in the midst of a wave of terror," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "There is no magic solution."
The deaths of Hassan and her daughter on Sunday brings the death toll in the Gaza Strip, occupied West Bank and occupied Jerusalem since October to 22, according to Al Jazeera.