It was another day of death and bloodshed in Israel Sunday where a wave of violence between Israelis and Palestinians is into its second week with neither side offering any peace overtures.
An Israeli airstrike on Gaza in response to Palestinian rocket fire killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her toddler daughter. Medics say they died when the building in which they were taking cover collapsed. Several others were hurt.
Later Sunday, Israeli gunfire killed a 13-year-old Palestinian boy during a clash at a checkpoint outside Ramallah on the West Bank. Israeli solders say the demonstrators were attacking them with rocks and firebombs.
Palestinians were also wounded during violent demonstrations in Gaza.
An Israeli Arab struck four people with his car before jumping out of the vehicle and stabbing them outside a kibbutz in northern Israel. And a Palestinian woman was seriously wounded when a gas cylinder blew up in her car at a checkpoint outside a West Bank Jewish settlement.
Tension over the east Jerusalem holy site that Muslims call the al-Aqsa mosque and Jews call the Temple Mount has been at the center of the surge in violence.
Palestinians, already frustrated by continued Jewish settlements in lands they want for a future state, accuse Israelis of trying to restrict them from the site.
Israel denies the charge and accuses Palestinian militants of inciting citizens to riot.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised to do all he can to stop what he calls a wave of terror, but is reluctant to listen to hardliners to take strong action. He is afraid of losing support from key Western allies.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appealed to his people to avoid violence and not play into the Israeli government's hands. But there appears to be very little he can to control rock-throwing youths.
