This is a developing story and may be updated.
The Palestinian health ministry said Monday that Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed nine people including three children—an attack that came the same day Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque and injured hundreds of Palestinians.
“Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism. Palestinians deserve protection,” tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).
“Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, don’t exist to protect Palestinian civilians,” she added. “It’s unconscionable to not condemn these attacks on the week of Eid.”
The latest intensification of violence follows weeks of protests over settler and Israeli state forces’ attempts to expel Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem.
Hamas said it fired rockets into southern Israel Monday in retaliation for the over 300 Palestinians injured by rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas at the site known to Palestinians as al-Haram al-Sharif.
Describing Israeli forces’ attack on Monday, Nour Mtour, a Palestinian who spent the night inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, told Al Jazeera, “Snipers went on the roof of the gate at the mosque compound and began to shoot rubber bullets at everyone—women, men, everyone.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it was denied access to treat the injured inside and that members of its team had been targeted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, vowed to respond to the rocket attacks, which left one civilian lightly injured, with “great force.”
In a speech Monday for Jerusalem Day, a holiday marking the day Israel annexed the eastern part of the city in the 1967, Netanyahu said that “the terror organizations in Gaza have crossed a red line.”
“Israel will respond with great force. We will not tolerate attacks in our territory, our capital, citizens, and soldiers,” he said. “Whoever attacks us will pay a heavy price.”
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