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Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired rockets toward the Jerusalem area and southern Israel on Monday, carrying out a threat to punish Israel for violent confrontations with Palestinians in Jerusalem.

The Gaza health ministry said nine Palestinians, including three children, were killed "in a series of strikes in northern Gaza". It did not explicitly blame Israel for the deaths, in an area that has been a staging ground for militants' cross-border rocket attacks.

Rocket sirens sounded in Jerusalem, in nearby towns and in communities near Gaza minutes after the expiry of an ultimatum from the enclave's ruling Hamas Islamist group demanding Israel stand down forces in the al Aqsa mosque compound and another flashpoint in the holy city.

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 the mosque, Islam's third most sacred site.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said more than 300 Palestinians were injured in clashes with police who fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas in the compound, which is also revered by Jews at the site of biblical temples.

The skirmishes, in which police said 21 officers were also hurt, at al Aqsa had died down by the 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) deadline Hamas had set.

Rockets fired from Gaza last hit the Jerusalem area during a 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the territory.

"The terrorist organisations crossed a red line on Jerusalem Day and attacked us, on the outskirts of Jerusalem," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech.

"Israel will respond very forcefully. We will not tolerate attacks on our territory, our capital, our citizens and our soldiers. Whoever strikes us will pay a heavy price," he said.

International efforts to stem the violence appeared to have already begun. A Palestinian official told Reuters that Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations, which have mediated truces between Israel and Hamas in the past, were in contact with the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said that on Monday, at least six of the 45 rockets fired from Gaza were launched towards Jerusalem's outskirts, where a house was hit. No casualties were reported.

"We have started to attack Hamas military targets," Conricus said in a briefing to foreign reporters, putting no timeframe on any Israeli offensive. "Hamas will pay a heavy price."

He said Israel had carried out an air strike in northern Gaza against Hamas militants and was looking into reports that children were killed.

"We had multiple events of rockets fired by Gaza terrorists falling short. This might be the same," Conricus said.

Along the fortified Gaza-Israeli border, a Palestinian anti-tank missile fired from the tiny coastal territory struck a civilian vehicle, injuring one Israeli, he said.

Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks.

"This is a message the enemy should understand well," said Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing.

VIOLENCE AROUND AL AQSA MOSQUE

The hostilities caught Netanyahu at an awkward time, as opponents negotiate the formation of a governing coalition to unseat him after an inconclusive March 23 election.

For Hamas, some commentators said, its challenge to Israel was a sign to Palestinians, whose own elections have been postponed by President Mahmoud Abbas, that it was now calling the shots in holding Israel accountable for events in Jerusalem.

Recent clashes in Jerusalem have raised international concern about wider conflict, and the White House called on Israel to ensure calm during "Jerusalem Day". L8N2MX0K2

The Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem has also been a focal point of Palestinian protests during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Several Palestinian families face eviction, under Israeli court order, from homes claimed by Jewish settlers in a long-running legal case.

In an effort to defuse tensions, police changed the route of a traditional Jerusalem Day march, in which thousands of Israeli flag-waving Jewish youth walk through the Old City. They entered through Jaffa Gate, bypassing the Damascus Gate outside the Muslim quarter, which has been a flashpoint in recent weeks.

Police rushed the marchers to cover at Jaffa Gate after the sirens went off.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday he seeshis final year in office as the last chance to achieve a lasting peace with North Korea, and said it was time to take action amid stalled talks over Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes.

Moon's comments, in a speech marking the fourth year of his presidency, come ahead of his first summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington on May 21.

The South Korean president is expected to push the United States to seek engagement with North Korea, though Biden has shown little interest in making North Korea a top priority.

"I will consider the remaining one year of my term to be the last opportunity to move from an incomplete peace toward one that is irreversible," Moon said. "Now, the time for long deliberations is also coming to an end. It is time to take action."

Biden's administration says its overtures to Pyongyang have not been answered, and it recently completed a policy review that called for a "practical" approach of using diplomacy to find achievable goals toward eventually persuading North Korea to surrender its nuclear weapons.

Moon said that he welcomed the conclusion of the policy review and that it demonstrated a "view that the current stalemate in dialogue is not desirable."

Biden, however, has shown no sign of loosening sanctions, which have hampered Moon's efforts to launch economic and tourism projects with the North, and the White House has not appointed a special envoy to handle the issue.

Both Koreas are also distracted by the fallout from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Facing declining poll numbers at home, Moon promised the government would further boost fiscal spending if needed to increase jobs, as the country deals with its worst unemployment rate in two decades.

North Korea claims to have zero confirmed cases of the virus, but has imposed strict border lockdowns and movement restrictions that crippled trade and exacerbated economic problems.

Moon has made engaging with North Korea a signature project and appeared to make progress in 2018 amid summits with leader Kim Jong Un, but as Moon enters his final year in office, Pyongyang shows little interest in talking.

North Korea's government consistently criticises and ridicules the South, and last year it blew up an inter-Korean liaison office built on its territory. But it has not tested nuclear weapons or long-range missiles since 2017.

In his speech, Moon said he didn't think North Korea is rejecting dialogue, but rather was waiting to further assess U.S. policy.

Although three inter-Korean summits and two North Korea-U.S. summits since 2018 did not resolve the nuclear issues, they helped defuse tension and maintain peace, and proved that diplomacy was the key, he said.

"If there is an opportunity to restart the clock of peace and advance the peace process on the Korean Peninsula, I will do everything I can," Moon said. "I look forward to North Korea responding positively." (Reuters)

The death toll from a bomb attack outside a school in the Afghan capital Kabul has risen to 68, officials said on Sunday, with doctors struggling to care for 165 injured victims and families searching desperately for missing children.

Explosions on Saturday evening shook the neighbourhood of Dasht-e-Barchi, home to a large community of Shi'ites from the Hazara ethnic minority which has been targeted in the past by Islamic State, a Sunni militant group.

A car bomb was detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school and two more bombs exploded when students rushed out in panic.

Officials said most of those killed were schoolgirls. Some families were still searching hospitals for their children.

"The first blast was powerful and happened so close to the children that some of them could not be found," said an Afghan official, requesting anonymity.

An eyewitness told Reuters all but seven or eight of the victims were schoolgirls going home after finishing their studies. On Sunday, civilians and policemen collected books and school bags strewn across a blood-stained road now busy with shoppers ahead of celebrations for Eid al-Fitr next week.

President Ashraf Ghani on Saturday blamed Taliban insurgents but a spokesman for the group denied involvement and condemned any attacks on Afghan civilians.

Pope Francis called the attack as "inhuman act" in remarks to pilgrims in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on Sunday.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the attack and expressed his deepest sympathies to the victims' families and to the Afghan government and people.

Families of the victims blamed the government and Western powers for failing to put an end to violence and the ongoing war.

MORGUES

Bodies were still being collected from morgues as the first burials were conducted in the west of the city. Some families were still searching for missing relatives on Sunday, gathering outside hospitals to read names posted on the walls, and checking morgues.

"The entire night we carried bodies of young girls and boys to a graveyard and prayed for everyone wounded in the attack," said Mohammed Reza Ali, who has been helping families of the victims at a private hospital.

"Why not just kill all of us to put and end to this war?" he said.

Security was intensified across Kabul after the attack but authorities said they would not be able to provide security to all schools, mosques and other public places.

Conflict is raging in Afghanistan, with security forces in daily combat with the Taliban, who have waged war to overthrow the foreign-backed government since they were ousted from power in Kabul in 2001.

Although the United States did not meet a May 1 withdrawal deadline agreed in talks with the Taliban last year, its military pull-out has begun, with President Joe Biden announcing that all troops will be gone by Sept. 11.

But the foreign troop withdrawal has led to a surge in fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents.

Critics of the decision say the Islamist militants will make a grab for power and civilians live in fear of being subjected once more to brutal and oppressive Taliban rule.

On Twitter, China's ambassador to Afghanistan, Wang Yu, said the abrupt U.S. announcement of a complete withdrawal of forces had led to a succession of attacks throughout the country.

"China calls on foreign troops in Afghanistan to take into full account the security of people in the country and the region, pull out in a responsible manner and avoid inflicting more turmoil and suffering on the Afghan people," he said.

Condemning the killing of civilians, India's foreign ministry said the death of more than 50 young girls made this an attack on the future of Afghanistan.

"The perpetrators clearly seek to destroy the painstaking and hard-won achievements that the Afghans have put in place over the last two decades," a statement said. (Reuters)

Taliban insurgents said on Monday they would observe a three-day ceasefire in Afghanistan for the Muslim religious holiday of Eid, starting this week, after weeks of increasing violence that gripped the country.

"In order that the Mujahideen again provide a peaceful and secure atmosphere to our compatriots during Eid-ul-Fitr so that they may celebrate this joyous occasion, all Mujahideen ... are instructed to halt all offensive operations," Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesman, said on Twitter.

Eid will begin on Wednesday or Thursday this week depending on the sighting of the moon.

The ceasefire declaration came two days after bombings outside a school in the western part of the Afghan capital, Kabul, killed at least 68, most of them students, and injured more than 165 others.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

Taliban insurgents, fighting to overthrow the Afghan government since their ouster by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, denied involvement in the bombings and condemned them.

Afghan government leadership said the group was behind the attack.

Naeem said the group's fighters had been instructed to cease all military operations against the Afghan government, but added they were ready to retaliate if attacked by government forces.

Fraidoon Khwazoon, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, which heads the peace process, said the group welcomed the Taliban's ceasefire announcement.

President Ashraf Ghani's spokesmen were not immediately available to comment on whether they would observe the ceasefire.

Peace talks between both warring sides in the Qatari capital, Doha, which began last year, have made no progress and violence has risen.

Kabul has been on high alert since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all U.S. troops by Sept. 11, with Afghan officials saying the Taliban stepped up attacks across the country following the announcement. (Reuters)