A pregnant mother and her baby were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza overnight Wednesday.
Enas Khammash, 23, and her 18-month daughter Bayan and a Hamas fighter were killed by Israeli air strikes in Jafarawi. 12 others have been injured.
This new escalation came after Hamas leadership convened a meeting in Gaza on Friday, which had raised hopes that a deal for peace with Israel. Meeting was backed by Egypt and the United Nations.
Following the meeting, two Hamas fighters were killed by Israeli fire on Tuesday.
Hamas warned Israel that it would pay for the attack and fired rockets into Israel that caused a minor injury to an Israeli.
Israel responded with air strikes hitting 100 targets in Gaza.
UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov condemned the violence.
"I am deeply alarmed by the recent escalation of violence between Gaza and Israel”, Mladenov said in a statement. He called on all sides to step "back from the brink".
According to AFP, “Clashes along the Gaza border since the end of March have seen at least 165 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.”
“The majority were killed during violent protests, but others have died in airstrikes or tank fire.”, reported AFP.
