An Israeli air strike killed a pregnant Palestinian woman and her 2-year-old daughter in Gaza Sunday. Four Israelis and 23 Palestinians have died in 12 days of bloodshed that has spread from Al-Quds and the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Israel's interior and Hamas-ruled Gaza. The Red Crescent medical service says over 500 Palestinians have been wounded in the West Bank, including about 100 from live fire. Israel's air strikes on Sunday demolished a house in the northern area of Zeitun, killing Nur Hassan, 30, and her two-year-old daughter Rahaf, Gaza medics said, and trapping three others under the ruins. Ashraf Al-Kidra, a Health Ministry spokesman in Gaza, said four others were wounded, included Hassan's husband and son, in the strike in the southern Gaza strip. Border clashes that broke out Friday came as Hamas's chief in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, called the overall violence an intifada and urged further unrest. In response to the air strike, a Hamas spokesman said "this shows the occupation's desire to escalate." "We warn the occupation against continuing this foolishness," said Sami Abu Zuhri. Also on Sunday morning, Israeli security forces claimed that they foiled an attack when an explosion seriously wounded a Palestinian woman and lightly injured an Israeli policeman. The office of French President Francois Hollande said on Sunday that "everything must be done to... end this cycle (of violence) which has already caused too many victims." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated the need for Israeli authorities to stop giving cover to "settler provocations, carried out under the army's protection." Netanyahu has ordered the emergency call-up of reserve border police companies to reinforce officers in east Jerusalem and throughout Israel. Palestinians see increasing visits over the past year by Jewish groups and right-wing lawmakers to the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, which is Islam's third holiest site, as eroding Muslim religious control of the compound. — Agencies
