Israel investigates Gaza shooting

Mourners say prayers next to the bodies of the mother and child

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli forces say they fired on "suspicious" figures in an area where a Palestinian woman and her 2-year-old daughter were shot and killed.

Initially, the Israeli army said a thorough investigation revealed no evidence of any shooting by Israeli forces in the area of the Netzarim settlement where the incident happened on Saturday.

Hospital sources said the woman, in her early 40s, and her daughter died from multiple gunshot wounds on Saturday morning while trying to cross a roadblock near the settlement, south of Gaza City.

The sources said Israeli forces fired on the vehicle they were travelling in.

"The army is checking if, in this incident, two Palestinian civilians were killed," an Israel Defense Forces said in a statement issued on Sunday.

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"The IDF is continuing to investigate this incident."

Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erakat accused the United States of ignoring the incident, which he called "a continuation of war crimes against the Palestinian people."

"When it comes to Palestinian mothers and children and innocent civilians killed by the Israeli army, the U.S. administration chooses not to see, not to speak, and not to condemn," Erakat said.

Israel began military operations in the West Bank and Gaza following back-to-back suicide bombings that killed 26 Israelis in Jerusalem last month. A series of suicide bombings and shootings have claimed the lives of more than 220 Israelis since January.