Israeli Airstrike Kills Pregnant Woman, 2-Year-Old in Gaza

Strike Destroys Home, IDF Claiming They Targeted Hamas 'Facility'

Adding to soaring tensions amid the rising Palestinian death toll, Israeli warplanes attacked and destroyed a house in the Gaza Strip, killing a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old daughter. Four others, including her husband and son, were  wounded in the attack.

Israeli officials claimed to be looking into reports of civilian casualties, but insisted that the strike had targeted a Hamas “facility” used to produced weaponry. There was no indication anything other than the house was destroyed in the attack.

The deaths are just the latest in several days of attacks on Gaza, starting with a Friday attack in which Israeli troops killed 6 protesters near the border. They followed this up with attacks that killed two more children on Saturday.

The Gaza deaths come amid growing unrest and violent crackdowns in the West Bank, and despite an official Israeli policy of trying to avoid more civilian casualties, the attacks seem likely to continue in both cases, with Israeli officials facing growing pressure from the far-right to crack down on the “terrorist” protesters.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.