By Turgut Alp Boyraz
JERUSALEM (AA) – Two Israeli women were killed early Wednesday in a Palestinian rocket attack from Gaza that targeted central Israel amid Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
The women lost their lives when a rocket fired from Gaza struck a car in the central Israeli city of Lod, according to the Israeli police.
The latest casualties bring the number of Israelis killed in Palestinian rocket attacks to five, while 45 others have been injured.
No details were shared on the identities of those killed in Lod, where Jewish and Palestinian Muslims live.
The death toll for Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the start of the offensive on the Gaza Strip has risen to 35, including two women and 12 children.
Tensions have been running high in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem and at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Damascus Gate since the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan as Israeli forces and settlers assaulted Palestinians.
The tensions moved from East Jerusalem to Gaza after Palestinian resistance groups there vowed to retaliate against Israeli assaults on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah if they were not halted.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.