Nine children were among at least 20 Palestinians killed while 65 others were injured in Israeli air attacks on the besieged Gaza strip after Hamas fired several rockets into the Israeli territory, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The Hamas had issued an ultimatum to Israel asking it to withdraw settlers and police from Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims and from the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem by Monday night.
Over 300 Palestinians including worshippers were injured after the Israeli forces barged into the holy mosque, also revered by Jews, and fired tear gas, rubber bullets and sound bombs inside the compound, the Palestinian humanitarian organization, Red Crescent said.
Shortly after the Hamas’s ultimatum ended, it fired a barrage of rockets into the Israeli territory.
A Hamas spokesman said the rockets were a “message” to Israel and a “response to its crimes and aggressions against the holy city.”
In the retaliatory Israeli air strikes, at least 20 Palestinians including nine children were killed as per the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli army claimed it had targeted 130 “military targets” and killed over a dozen “operatives”, news website Al Jazeera reported.
The website put the death toll at 21.