Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 26 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including nine children, as tension in the region has escalated sharply over the past day. In one incident, seven members of a single family in Gaza were killed, including three children.

Refat Al Masri: “What happened here is we were sitting outside the house waiting for iftar, the breaking of the fast. An 8-month-old child was killed. Mohammad, who was getting married in five days after Eid, was killed. How is this the children’s fault? Girls between the ages of 7 and 9 have been killed. How is this their fault? We were just sitting outside the house waiting for the call to prayer.”

The attacks came after 700 Palestinians were injured in Jerusalem and the West Bank by Israeli security forces on Monday — including a violent crackdown inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the third-holiest site in Islam. Hamas responded by firing hundreds of rockets into Israel. No deaths were reported, but police said over two dozen people were injured. The tension in Jerusalem has been mounting for weeks as Palestinians have been organizing to block Israel from forcibly evicting dozens of Palestinians in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem to give their homes to Jewish settlers.