Israel has said it was striking Hamas targets in retaliation for the dozens of rockets fired on Monday from the enclave towards Israel.
At least 20 people were killed, including nine children, and 65 others wounded in Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired rockets towards Israel, Hamas said.
Israel has said it was striking Hamas targets in retaliation for the dozens of rockets fired on Monday from the enclave towards Israel, but has not confirmed its strikes had caused fatalities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas had crossed a “red line” by directing missiles towards Jerusalem and that the Jewish state would “respond with force”.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the updated death toll included a 10-year-old girl, while Hamas has confirmed that one of its commanders was killed in a strike.
As Israel celebrated “Jerusalem Day” earlier on Monday, marking its capture of eastern sections of the holy city in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, violence erupted at Al Aqsa mosque.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said more than 300 Palestinians were injured in clashes with police who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas in the compound.
The skirmishes, in which police said 21 officers were also hurt, at Al Aqsa had died down by the 6pm deadline Hamas had set.
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