RAMALLAH, West Bank â The number of Palestinians killed by Israel in the occupied West Bank has risen to 11.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said late Friday that one of the wounded men brought to a hospital in the territory earlier had been in critical condition and died of his injuries. This comes amid rising tensions in the West Bank signaling a new wave of violence from the Israel-Gaza confrontation.
Meanwhile in east Jerusalem, a police vehicle caught fire during widespread violent clashes between Palestinians and police.
Police said security forces in the a-Tur neighborhood were attacked Friday by stones and firebombs, one of which hit a police car and set it on fire. Police responded to protesters with tear gas and stun grenades.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip â An Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City has killed at least seven Palestinians.
The airstrike early Saturday in the western part of Gaza City recorded the highest number of fatalities in a single hit.
The militant group Hamas reported the number is likely to rise as efforts to recover casualties from under the rubble of the house on the edge of Shati refugee camp are still ongoing. There was no immediate update from the Health Ministry and its spokesman did not answer calls for comment.
Said Alghoul, who lives nearby, said Israeli warplanes dropped at least three bombs on the three-story house without warning its residents in advance.
Hamas is the largest of several Palestinian militant Islamist groups, explains BBC News.
Its name is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement - Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya.
Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric.
He became an activist in the local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo.
From the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were occupied by Israeli forces following the 1967 Six-Day War, explains the CFR.
Yassin established Hamas as the Brotherhood’s local political arm in December 1987.