Smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City. Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, the military said, widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations. Picture: Hatem Moussa Source: AP
THE Middle East is once again at flashpoint, as Israel and Hamas trade bloody body blows in Gaza and Tel Aviv.
6.10pm: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has left Paris for Israel ''to call on all the parties to stop the escalation and offer France's help to reach an immediate ceasefire,'' his ministry says.
During his one-day trip, the minister will meet with the Israeli authorities and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
''This visit prepared in co-ordination with our principal regional and international partners, will be the occasion for talks'' with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, it said.
The visit had been announced from Israel.
Fabius will travel to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and will visit Ramallah, in the West Bank, to meet Abbas, Palestinian and French officials say.
5.52pm: Two journalists were injured in an Israeli missile attack on a media centre in Gaza housing Sky News. Al-Arabiya, and the official Hamas-run channel al-Aqsa TV have offices in the building.
5.20pm: Sky News reporter Sam Kiley was inside a building housing international media in Gaza when it was struck by Israeli missiles. He said the building took two direct hits, blowing out all the windows on the 15th floor studio used by Sky News. Kiley said the building houses journalists and camera crew, leaving him at a loss to explain why the Israeli military would target a building housing mainly media. It is the second missile strike against a media building by the Israeli air force and navy.
4.52pm: The Sky News headquarters in Gaza also housed other international media, including Reuters.
4.40pm: Sky News headquarters in Gaza City have been struck by Israeli missiles, Sky News Australia reports.
4.30pm: Rocket fire from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has subsided as cease-fire efforts appear to be gaining momentum, AP reports.
But the Israeli military is pressing ahead with its offensive against Palestinian rocket squads there.
The Israeli military said Sunday morning local time that Gaza militants haven't attacked Israel since the night before.
The lull coincides with Egyptian-led efforts to negotiate an end to the five-day-old confrontation.
Israel is reluctant to let up without signs a truce would hold.
Thousands of Israeli troops are massed near the Gaza border, meanwhile, awaiting an order to invade should Israeli leaders decide to widen the operation.
4pm: Air attacks knocked out five electricity transformers, cutting off power to more than 400,000 people in southern Gaza, according to the Gaza electricity distribution company. People switched on backup generators for limited electrical supplies.
3.25pm: Medical officials say the death toll has risen to 46 Palestinians, including 15 civilians, and more than 400 wounded civilians. Three Israeli civilians have been killed and more than 50 wounded.
2.40pm: Israeli military officials expressed satisfaction with their progress on Saturday, claiming they had inflicted heavy damage on Hamas.
''Most of their capabilities have been destroyed,'' Major General Tal Russo, Israel's southern commander, told reporters.
Asked whether Israel was ready to send ground troops into Gaza, he said: ''Absolutely.''
2.20pm: Israel is running the risk of ''feeding extremism'' if its response to Hamas is seen as disproportionate, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr warned.
Senator Carr says Israel has a right to defend its people but he has again urged its government to use restraint.
''I urge a de-escalation and calm at this point. That is what Australia is calling for, that is what other governments are calling for,'' he told reporters in Sydney.
''We say that account must be taken of civilian casualties, that Israel should be aware of the risk its own troops will be under, the risk of injury or death or kidnapping, and Israel should be aware of the danger of feeding extremism by what might be seen as a disproportionate reaction.''
Senator Carr said Israel ran the risk of a backlash with its attack on Gaza, one of the most densely populated regions in the world.
''Any Israeli reaction has got to take into account the great danger of civilian casualties, of the danger of the world seeing it as a disproportionate reaction even though the rocket attacks on Israel are the key cause of this tension,'' he said.
The world wanted ''an alternative to further fighting'' but Israel was entitled to defend itself.
''The Israelis will defend their people and they will respond strongly,'' Senator Carr said.
He repeated that he expected one of the legacies US President Barack Obama would seek in his second term was the creation of a Palestinian state.
1:05pm: An air strike that hit a Gaza City media building earlier today has injured at least six journalists, as a separate raid in northern Gaza killed two people, Palestinian medical sources said.
"At least six journalists were wounded, with minor and moderate injuries, when Israeli warplanes hit the al-Quds TV office in the Showa and Housari building in the Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City," health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said. Earlier reports suggested three people had been injured in the attack.
Witnesses reported extensive damage to the building, and said journalists had evacuated after an initial strike, which was followed by at least two more on the site.
The injured were taken to Gaza City's Shifa hospital. One journalist lost his leg in the attack, Qudra said. Imad Efranji, director of the al-Quds TV office, slammed the incident as "a new crime against the media."
"It was the media battle that forced Israel to stop its killing of children and civilians last time," he told AFP, referring to Israel's December 2008-January 2009 Operation Cast Lead.
In the northern strip, Israeli war planes carried out two separate raids on houses that killed two and injured 10 others, Qudra said.
"Two young citizens were killed and at least ten others wounded in two separate raids on houses in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanun," he said.
In Gaza City, as the Israeli air force attacked from above, Israeli naval forces opened fire, launching more than a dozen shells towards the shore, an AFP correspondent reported.
It was unclear what the shells had hit, with the Israeli military's official spokesperson Twitter account saying only: "(A) short while ago, Israeli Navy targeted several Hamas terror sites in the Gaza Strip."
12:45pm: Israel destroyed the headquarters of Hamas' prime minister and blasted a sprawling network of smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip, broadening a blistering four-day-old offensive against the Islamic militant group even as diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire appeared to be gaining steam.
Hamas officials said a building used by Hamas for broadcasts was bombed and three people were injured. The injured were from Al Quds TV, a Lebanon-based television channel.
The building is also used by foreign news outlets including Germany's ARD, Kuwait TV and the Italian RAI and others.
The Israeli military spokesman was not immediately aware of the strikes but said they were investigating.
12:08pm: Digital activist group Anonymous claim to have successfully hacked several Israeli government websites, deleting databases and leaking emails and passwords, according to a report on tech website Gizmodo.
The group claims to have wiped out databases for both Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bank of Jerusalem.
"To the oppressors of the innocent Palestinian people, it is too late to EXPECT US," the group said in a statement earlier today.
11.39am: Medics have reported that two people have been killed and 10 injured in an Israeli strike on northern Gaza homes, according to AFP.
11:26am: An Israeli air strike has hit local media outlet Al-Quds satellite channel in the Gaza Strip injuring three, medical sources have told AFP.
11:05am: Israeli artillery fired into Syria after gunfire from Syria hit an army vehicle but caused no injuries, the Israeli military said, in the latest spillover of violence from the bloody civil war raging across the ceasefire line.
"Shots were fired at IDF (Israeli army) soldiers...in the central Golan Heights," an army spokeswoman told AFP. "Soldiers responded with artillery fire towards the source of the shooting.
The IDF also tweeted that it was targeting militants in Gaza.
"A short while ago, the IDF targeted two smuggling tunnels belonging to terrorist groups in the #Gaza Strip," the IDF tweeted.
10:40am: These startling images have emerged from violent clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank.
A Palestinian youths clash with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
Palestinian youth take cover behind a makeshift barrier during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank, o. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
10:20am:While Egypt's president is talking up the possibility of a ceasfire, watch video footage of Israeli forces massing on the border.
Israeli forces deploy artillery to border and airstrikes killed one person and wounded several in Gaza. Deborah Gembara reports
9:15am: Arab foreign ministers roundly denounced Israel's campaign in Gaza, as Egypt tried to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi told reporters in Cairo his government was in "vigorous'' communication with both Israel and the Palestinians.
"There are some indications that there could be a ceasefire soon,'' Morsi told a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding that there were still "no guarantees.''
Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was also in Cairo for talks, a senior Hamas official said. A senior Hamas official told AFP the movement was reluctant to agree a truce because it does not believe mediators could guarantee the terms of a ceasefire. The "international community'' had to put pressure on Israel, he said.
Medics said 45 Gazans had been killed and more than 450 injured since Israel launched its air campaign on Wednesday, with at least eight militants among the 15 people killed yesterday alone.
As the toll rose, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv for a third day, sending people running for cover a day after a rocket fired by militants in Gaza hit the sea near the city centre, AFP correspondents said.
Israeli officials said one rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system while a second hit somewhere in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area. The attack was claimed by Hamas's armed wing.
Residents of Israel's commercial centre say they feel more comfortable after new rocket defence system is deployed. Sunita Rappai reports.
Warplanes carried out 180 air strikes on Gaza overnight, Israeli television reported, with attacks levelling the headquarters of the Hamas government.
8:25am: Israeli troops are massing on the border with Gaza readying for a ground offensive on the fifth day of Operation Pillar of Defence, as Turkey and Egypt press Israel to end the fighting, according to AFP.
7:40am: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi says there are indications Israel and Hamas may reach a truce soon, according to an AFP alert, but Israel's media organisastions are denying rumours of a looming ceasefire.
7:20am: Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi will head a delegation to Gaza in a show of solidarity after Arab ministers decided to review their diplomacy towards Israel and show their support for the Palestinians.
The delegation will travel to Gaza "to affirm solidarity with the Palestinians," a League statement said after the foreign ministers' meeting. Arabi told reporters it would head for the enclave either later today or tomorrow.
The statement said the ministers decided to ask an Arab League task force to review "the usefulness of continuing the Arab commitment in proposing the Arab peace initiative as a strategic choice."
6:40am: Four Palestinians were killed in new Israeli air strikes on central Gaza, raising the death toll from 72 hours of raids to 44, the emergency services said.
A statement first announced two deaths in a strike on Deir al-Balah, then added an additional two deaths in a strike on the Masdar area, also in central Gaza. There were no immediate details on whether the four were civilians or militants.
At least four people were injured in the strike in Deir al-Balah, which followed multiple strikes during the day that killed 10 Palestinians, eight of them militants.
The statement added that at least two Palestinians were in critical condition after an air strike on their car in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, adding that another two were also in serious condition after a strike on a motorbike in Khan Yunis, in central Gaza.
Nine Israelis including four soldiers were hurt by rocket fire, medics said.
The bloodshed raised to 44 the total number of Palestinians killed in just over 72 hours of Israeli air strikes, while another 393 were injured, Gaza's emergency services said.
Over the same period, three Israelis have been killed by rockets and another 18 injured, 10 of them soldiers, police and the army said.
6:20am: Hundred of protesters have demonstrated near the Israeli embassy in London, waving placards and chanting slogans like "From London to Ramallah organise the intifada".
Speakers on a podium condemned the British government after Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Hamas regime running the Gaza Strip bore "principal responsibility" for the escalation of violence.
The rally was called by the left-wing Stop the War Coalition, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
"We are insisting that the British government uphold international law and human rights and tells Israel to end its war now," PSC director Sarah Colborne said. "It's very clear what is happening here: Gaza is under siege, Israel started this by assassinating the person who was trying to negotiate a long-term truce with Israel," she said.
5:50am: The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald's writes here about why the US can't pretend it is not involved in the dispute.
A central premise of US media coverage of the Israeli attack on Gaza - beyond the claim that Israel is justifiably "defending itself" - is that this is some endless conflict between two foreign entitles, and Americans can simply sit by helplessly and lament the tragedy of it all.
The reality is precisely the opposite: Israeli aggression is possible only because of direct, affirmative, unstinting US diplomatic, financial and military support for Israel and everything it does.
This self-flattering depiction of the US as uninvolved, neutral party is the worst media fiction since TV news personalities covered the Arab Spring by pretending that the US is and long has been on the side of the heroic democratic protesters, rather than the key force that spent decades propping up the tyrannies they were fighting.
5:43am: Arab foreign ministers roundly denounced Israel's campaign in Gaza in an emergency meeting in Cairo on Saturday and demanded a review of what they called their futile diplomacy towards the Jewish state.
The session came amid a flurry of meetings to coordinate an Arab and Turkish response to the four-day conflict in which 40 Palestinians have been killed in air strikes and three Israelis have died in Hamas rocket attacks.
Some ministers and officials at the meeting ventured into rare self-criticism at a forum more accustomed to routine denunciations of Israel.
Member states should "reconsider all past Arab initiatives on the peace process and review their stance on the process as a whole," said Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
5:31am: The Arab League has an emergency meeting.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Malki (R) and Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani attend an emergency meeting of the Arab Foreign ministers in Cairo. Source: AFP
5:18am: Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed 10 Palestinians overnight, eight of them militants, as nine Israelis including four soldiers were hurt by rocket fire, medics said.
The bloodshed raised to 40 the total number of Palestinians killed in just over 72 hours of Israeli air strikes, while another 393 were injured, Gaza's emergency services said.
Over the same period, three Israelis have been killed by rockets and another 18 injured, 10 of them soldiers, police and the army said.
In the latest strike, warplanes hit the southern Gaza city of Rafah, killing Osama Qadi, 25, and injuring another two people, emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya said.
Earlier attacks on Rafah killed five people, an ambulance worker called Awad Nahal and four Hamas militants.
5:13am: Protests against the rocket fire crop up in countries all over the world, including here in Spain.
Activists lay on the ground next to a banner reading in Catalan "Stop the Massacre in Gaza" during a demonstration against Israel's attacks on Gaza, in Barcelona, Spain. Source: AP
5:04am: Union of Health Care Committees (UHCC) has charged that the Israeli occupation was deliberately targeting the children and women of Gaza by using internationally prohibited weapons.
UHCC reported in a press statement overnight that such large numbers of dead and injured children in the ongoing Israeli aggression in Gaza demonstrates the clear Israeli targeting of civilians particularly innocent children.
4.55am: Tel Aviv is shaken by rocket attacks on the capital.
An Israeli woman and her children take cover as sirens wail in Tel Aviv. Source: AFP
4:52am: Cyber attacks by Anonymous on Israeli sites continue.
Israeli soldiers fire tear gas towards students from the University of Birzeit during clashes as students rallied against the ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip. Source: AFP
4:48am: Israeli soldiers fight back against stone throwers.
Israeli soldiers fire tear gas towards stone throwers demonstrating against the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip in the village of Beit Omar, north of the West Bank town of Hebron. Source: AFP
4:44am: AP reports that The White House has defended Israel's right to defend itself against attack and decide how to respond to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, blaming the ruling Islamic militant Hamas group for starting the conflict.
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are in agreement that a de-escalation of the violence is preferred, provided that Hamas stops sending rocket into Israel, deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters during the president's flight on Air Force One to Asia.
Israel launched the offensive on Wednesday by assassinating Hamas' military commander, but Rhodes said the U.S. believes "the precipitating factor for the conflict was the rocket fire coming out of Gaza. We believe Israel has a right to defend itself, and they'll make their own decisions about the tactics they use in that regard."
He added, "These rockets have been fired into Israeli civilian areas and territory for some time now. So Israelis have endured far too much of a threat from these rockets for far too long, and that is what led the Israelis to take the action that they did in Gaza."
4.33am: Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has said the bloc should review its peace proposals to Israel and its entire stance on the peace process in response to the conflict in Gaza.
Member states should "reconsider all past Arab initiatives on the peace process and review their stance on the process as a whole," he told an Arab foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo called to discuss the conflict.
A Palestinian youth take cover behind a makeshift barrier during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
4.20am: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, headed to talks with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in Cairo, has said Israel is squarely to blame for the latest upsurge in violence.
"It's a tactic of Israel's to point the finger at Hamas and attack Gaza," he told reporters before leaving Ankara.
"Israel continues to make an international racket with its three dead," he said of three Israelis killed by a rocket fired from Gaza. "In fact it is Israel that violated the ceasefire."
The trail of an Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome air defence system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, is pictured from the southern Israeli-Gaza border in response to a rocket launched from the nearby Gaza Strip. Picture: Jack Guez Source: AFP
4.06am: Rocket attacks fired by Palestinian militants on Israel from Gaza were a "precipitating factor" for the conflict that has engulfed the two sworn enemies, a White House official has said.
"We believe that the precipitating factor for the conflict was the rocket fire coming out of Gaza," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters aboard Air Force One. "We believe that Israel has a right to defend itself and they'll make their own decisions about the tactics that they use in that regard."
4:01am: Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi has pledged to support Palestinians against "Israel's aggression" and to end the blockade of Gaza as Arab ministers began emergency talks on the conflict in Cairo.
"We pledge to the Palestinians in Gaza and everywhere to provide support to confront this aggression and break the siege," he said at the start of the meeting.
A Palestinian throws a stone during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
3.53am: Yossi Druker, head of Rafael's air defence division, has told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the success rate of the Iron Dome anti-missile system has been about 85 per cent. The Israelis expect the system's success rate to improve.
3.45am: The BBC's Middle East Bureau Chief Paul Danahar says it has been a relatively quiet evening in Gaza but believes it may not stay that way despite hopes of a ceasefire being negotiated in Cairo.
Smoke rises following an Israeli strike in Gaza as seen from the Israel Gaza Border, southern Israel. Picture: Ariel Schalit Source: AP
3.22am: Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed 10 Palestinians on Saturday, five of them militants, as nine Israelis were hurt by rocket fire, four of them soldiers, medics said.
The bloodshed raised to 40 the total number of Palestinians killed in just over 72 hours of Israeli air strikes, while another 393 were injured, Gaza's emergency services said.
In the same period, three Israelis have been killed by rockets and another 18 injured, 10 of them soldiers, police and the army said.
Smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City. Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes early Saturday, the military said, widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations. Picture: Hatem Moussa Source: AP
3.06am: A senior Iranian official has denied his country supplied the Fajr 5 missiles which Palestinian militants have been firing at Tel Aviv, Iran's Al-Alam television reported.
"We deny having delivered the Fajr 5 to the Palestinian resistance. The aim of such accusations is to portray the resistance as weak whereas it is perfectly capable of producing the arms it needs," said Allaeddine Boroujerdi, head of parliament's foreign affairs committee.
Islamic Jihad claimed its militants fired a Fajr 5 which crashed into the sea off Tel Aviv on Thursday, in the first such attack on the heart of Israel since Saddam Hussin's Iraqi regime fired Scud missiles during the 1991 Gulf war.
A Hamas officer inspects an unexploded Israeli missile in Gaza City. Picture: Bernat Armangue Source: AP
2.55am: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that Israel would be held to account for the children among 40 people dead in three days of air strikes on Gaza.
"Everyone must know that sooner or later there will be a holding to account for the massacre of these innocent children killed inhumanely in Gaza," he said in a speech at Cairo University.
Palestinian Khaled Tafish stands near the body of his 10-month-old daughter Hanen at a morgue in Gaza City on Friday. The baby was killed the day before following an Israeli air strike in the Zeitun neighbourhood. Picture: Marco Longari Source: AFP
2.43am: Hamas militants from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades have confirmed they were behind the rocket fire, saying they had launched an Iranian-built Fajr 5 rocket at Tel Aviv.
Palestinians inspect the rubble of a destroyed house after an Israeli airstrike in the Jebaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza Strip. Picture: Hatem Moussa Source: AP
2.36am: The Israeli Defence Force says it was the newly deployed fifth Iron Dome anti-missile battery which was responsible for intercepting a projectile bound for Tel Aviv.
2.29am: Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal is in Cairo on Saturday to confer on ending the Gaza conflict but the Islamist group is reluctant to agree a ceasefire without guarantees Israel will honour it, a senior Hamas official said.
"Through Egyptian mediation, we reached an understanding for a truce and it was broken in about 48 hours," he said of an Israeli air strike on Wednesday that killed the Hamas military chief, after rockets were fired from Gaza.
"Egypt now cannot say: 'I guarantee a truce,'" he said, adding it would require a stronger effort by the "international community."
A Palestinian demonstrator kicks a tear gas canister during clashes against Israel's operations in Gaza Strip, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah. Picture: Nasser Shiyoukhi Source: AP
2.17am: Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo are expected to demand that Israel immediately halt its campaign in Gaza, and to discuss sending a delegation of ministers there, an Arab diplomat has told AFP.
The pan-Arab body announced on Wednesday its decision to hold emergency talks in response to Israeli air strikes in Gaza, which have killed 40 Gazans and wounded more than 350.
The Arab diplomats "will seek an immediate end to the Israeli aggression and stress their full support for the Gaza Strip," the diplomat said.
2.09am: AP reports that the Israeli military is saying its "Iron Dome" rocket-defense system has shot down an incoming projectile bound for Tel Aviv.
Footage from Associated Press Television News shows a plume of smoke emanating from an Iron Dome battery deployed in Tel Aviv followed by a flash of light overhead as the rocket is intercepted.
People huddled along Tel Aviv's beachfront boardwalk cheered Saturday as the interception took place.
It's the third straight day that Gaza militants have fired rockets at Tel Aviv, Israel's bustling commercial and cultural capital.
Israel says its Iron Dome system has intercepted nearly 250 rockets since a round of fighting broke out on Wednesday.
Israelis take cover in a bomb shelter in central Tel Aviv as sirens warn them of a possible rocket strike. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
2.03am: Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 10 Palestinians and destroyed the Hamas government headquarters overnight as Israel called up thousands more reservists for a possible ground war.
After Palestinian militants fired rockets at the heart of Israel on Friday, Israeli warplanes carried out 180 air strikes overnight, Israel TV reported, with the strikes levelling the headquarters of the Hamas government.
"It's like a real-life horror movie, what I saw today ... It's a miracle we're still alive," said 18-year-old Suha, standing in front of her house, told AFP.
Medics said 40 Gazans have been killed and more than 350 wounded since Israel launched an aerial campaign on the enclave on Wednesday afternoon, with at least five militants among the 10 people killed in Saturday's raids.
As the toll rose, sirens went off in Tel Aviv for a third day running, sending people scuttling for cover, a day after a rocket crashed into the sea near the city centre, AFP correspondents said. The fire was claimed by Hamas's armed wing.
Palestinian demonstrators protect their eyes from tear gas during clashes against Israel's operations in Gaza Strip. Source: AP
1.47am: Air raid sirens went off in Tel Aviv for a third day running overnight, sending people scuttling for cover as TV images showed the Iron Dome anti-missile system firing on an incoming rocket.
People could be seen running to find shelter as the sirens wailed, a day after a rocket crashed into the sea off central Tel Aviv.
1.42am: Palestinians deliver a separate message by burning the Israeli flag
Supporters of a Pakistan religious student group Islami Jamiat Talaba burn a representative of Israeli flag during a demonstration against the Israeli offensive in Gaza. Source: AP
1.41am: Israel tries to distribute its message
Israel Defense Force distributes its message. Source: Supplied
1.36am: Air raids sirens are going off again in Tel Aviv
1.34am: One man was killed on Saturday in a fresh Israeli strike on Rafah in southern Gaza, taking the overall Palestinian death toll from three days of Israeli raids to 40, medics said.
"Osama Qadi, 25, was killed and two others were wounded in an air strike on Rafah," emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya told AFP.
In a separate strike, another eight people were wounded in a raid on the southern city of Khan Yunis, he said.
1.22am: One dead as Israel launches fresh attack on Gaza.
1.16am: Tweets by Kim Kardashian on the Israel-Palestinian attacks have been deleted by the star who then made an apology on her blog.
The reality star tweeted, "Praying for everyone in Israel," followed later by another tweet saying, "Praying for everyone in Palestine and across the world!"
But reaction from her followers was very critical. But she gained support on Twitter from hip hop mogul Russell Simmons.
"@KimKardashian, there is no need to apologize. ur intention to promote love to ur 16m followers is much appreciated."
By the afternoon, Kim was in damage control.
"I decided to take down the tweets because I realized that some people were offended and hurt by what I said, and for that I apologize," she wrote. "The fact is that regardless of religion and political beliefs, there are countless innocent people involved who didn't choose this, and I pray for all of them and also for a resolution."
12.54am: Songs of support start appearing on Twitter.
12.30am: Ceasefire.com republishes James Turner's view of the four big lies told about the Israel-Palestine conflict by the media.
Big Lie #1 - Universities and civilians are 'military infrastructure'
Big Lie #2 – Hamas started it
Big Lie #3 – Israel wants peace, the Palestinians want war
Big Lie #4 – The international community can't stop the war
To read his full piece click here
12.21am: Those in Israel refuse to let the bombing interrupt their lives.
Elad and his girlfriend Hadas check to see if the latest hip Tel Aviv establishment has a proper shelter in case of a sudden air siren - and only then look at the menu before deciding on a restaurant.
"It is the (1991) Gulf War all over again except that these rockets are no longer called SCUDS," said 20-something Elad as he walked hand-in-hand with Hadas along the city's bustling Mediterranean seafront.
"But the people refuse to admit it," Hadas chipped in. "People like sipping their coffees at outdoor cafes and really do not want to change their lifestyles. It is a slow process in Tel Aviv, this change."
12.10am: Israeli strikes on Gaza killed nine Palestinians and destroyed the Hamas government headquarters overnight as Israel called up thousands more reservists for a possible ground war.
After Palestinian militants fired rockets at the heart of Israel on Friday, around 180 air strikes were carried out overnight, Israeli television reported.
Palestinian medics said 39 Gazans have been killed and 345 wounded since Israel launched the aerial campaign on the Palestinian enclave on Wednesday, with at least four militants among the nine people killed in the latest raids.
Since the start of its operation, the Israeli army says militants have fired more than 600 rockets over the border, of which 404 hit and 230 were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system.
In the same period, three Israelis have been killed and 18 injured, including 10 soldiers, while the army say it has carried out more than 830 air strikes in its operation "Pillar of Defence."
11.40pm: Jordan's King Abdullah II has ordered the dispatch of urgent humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, targeted by Israeli air strikes for a fourth straight day.
The Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organisation was instructed to "send urgent humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza who are facing suffering and difficult living conditions due to Israeli attacks," the royal palace said.
11.12pm: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned Israel's airstrikes on Gaza and called for an "immediate stop" to violence against civilians.
"President Hamid Karzai strongly condemns the strikes by Israel against the Palestinian territory that have killed and injured a number of innocent civilians," a statement from his office said.
"Harming civilians is unjustifiable on any side and anywhere," the president was quoted as saying.
A dog walks down from a house covered with shrapnel holes, damaged by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip after it hit in a community near Ashdod, southern Israel. Picture: Tsafrir Abayov Source: AP
10.51pm: Laila Saker, 29, is eight-and-half months pregnant and the mother of six-year-old Razan and four-year-old Uday. She lives in Gaza and says she and her family have been terrified for the the past three days.
"My daughter Razan hasn't spoken for the last two days. She rarely makes a sound. My son, Uday, has become aggressive. I've been trying to relax them... but I feel like it isn't working," she told AFP.
"I'm afraid for my unborn baby and my children. I want to cry during the bombing but I'm holding myself together for the children because I don't want them to be afraid."
10.18pm: Israel has put a fifth Iron Dome anti-missile battery into service, the Reuters news agency reports. The system has been deployed near Tel Aviv and was not due to be used until next year.
Israeli soldiers work on their a tanks in a staging ground near the border with Gaza Strip, southern Israel. Picture: Ariel Schalit Source: AP
10.02pm: The world must stop Israel's "blatant aggression" in Gaza, Tunisia's foreign minister said in Gaza City, as Israel's military continued to pounded the strip.
Rafik Abdessalem, the second top-level diplomat to travel to Gaza in as many days, made the remarks as Hamas was locked in an escalating confrontation with the Israeli military.
"Our message to the international community is that this blatant Israeli aggression on our people in Gaza must stop," he said as he visited the ruins of the Hamas government headquarters which was flattened overnight in an Israeli strike.
Explosion and smoke rise following an Israeli strike in Gaza, seen from the Israel Gaza Border, southern Israel, in southern Israel. Picture: AP Source: AP
8.22pm: A rocket fired by militants in the Gaza Strip has lightly wounded four Israeli soldiers, the army said, with military sources adding they were "inside a building'' at the time.
7pm: Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem has arrived in Gaza, crossing via the southern Rafah border point, for a brief solidarity visit, a Hamas spokesman said.
"The Tunisian delegation led by Foreign Minister Rafik Abdessalem has arrived in Gaza and is en route to the headquarters of the government destroyed by the occupation this morning, where he will meet with government officials,'' interior ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan told AFP.
4.45pm: Israel's military says it has struck more than 800 targets in the Gaza Strip, includes 180 overnight airstrikes.
The Gaza Interior Ministry says Israeli aircraft have struck government and police compounds, smuggling tunnels and a three-story apartment building.
3.13pm: Eyewitnesses have reported extensive damage to the cabinet headquarters of Gaza's Hamas government.
"The cabinet headquarters was targeted with four strikes and the government stresses that it remains committed to its positions and its stand alongside the people,'' the Hamas government said in a statement.
2.35pm: The headquarters of the Hamas cabinet in Gaza have been hit in the Israeli strike, a ministry official says.
2.20pm: Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr has urged Israel and the Palestinians to exercise restraint, saying the rocket attack on Jerusalem signifies a dramatic escalation of the worsening Middle East conflict.
Senator Carr says both sides should draw back from the brink of war.
"I understand Israel was already considering ground action,'' Senator Carr told Sky News today.
"That was before these rocket attacks, so it's extremely serious and a dramatic escalation that has us again, as Australians, calling for both sides to exercise a high degree of restraint.''
Israeli Ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem acknowledged the calls for restraint.
"The question is if we exercise restraint and the rockets continue to come all the way from Gaza, how are we going to stop it?'' he told Sky News.
"The rockets need to be stopped.''
12.41pm: Western nations are pushing Egypt to persuade Palestinian militants to end rocket attacks from Gaza and backed Israel's right to self-defence, laying bare a new divide with the Arab world.
While they deplored civilian casualties on both sides since Israel launched a military assault against the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the West stressed the onus was on Hamas to halt rocket fire into southern Israel.
"Israel has the right to protect its population from these kinds of attacks. I urge Israel to ensure that its response is proportionate,'' European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.
She echoed hopes that Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil, who crossed into Gaza for a brief visit, "will be able calm the situation.''
Washington has reached out to Egypt's new Islamist leaders as well as to allies such as Turkey to use their sway with Palestinian leaders.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr explains that it is the first time in 20 years that rockets have reached Tel Aviv.
11.43am: Israel Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman told Israeli TV that toppling Hamas is not on the agenda as a goal for Operation Pillar of Defense.
"We are definitely considering a ground operation, but toppling Hamas, I think that's something that the next government will have to decide," he said.
11.18am: "Tonight won't be calm in Gaza," Israel army spokesman Yoav Mordechai said.
Israel has blocked access to three major routes leading into Gaza.
Rumours swirling that a ground attack is imminent, but Israeli officials have said no decision has yet been made.
Israeli reserve soldiers sit on board a bus heading to south of the country after they were called for duty in Tel Aviv, Israel. Up to 75,000 reservists called up. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) Source: Getty Images
10.46am: "We've targeted 2 senior Hamas operatives: Muhammad Abu-Jalal, company commander in central #Gaza, & Khaled Shah'yer, chief missile operator," tweeted the Israel Defence Forces.
10.25am: The Israeli cabinet has given its approval for the recruitment of up to 75,000 reservists, Channel 2 television says, amid signs that Israel is gearing up for a ground offensive in Gaza.
The decision was taken in a phone vote which was carried out as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks at the defence ministry in Tel Aviv with his inner circle, the Forum of Nine, the channel reported.
In practice, it means that up to 75,000 reserve soldiers can be drafted into action by the military at any point, as Israel appeared set to expand its relentless air campaign against Gaza militants.
The Israeli army also moved to seal off roads around Gaza, with witnesses reporting a growing build-up of military hardware and reserve forces along the Gaza border.
Israeli soldiers sit atop their armoured personnel carriers (APC) stationed on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. Israeli officials said the Jewish state was preparing to launch its first ground offensive in four years into the Gaza Strip and the army started calling up reservists. AFP PHOTO/MENAHEM KAHANA Source: AFP
"Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser has started to conduct a phone vote among government ministers for approval to recruit 75,000 reserve soldiers,'' the cabinet secretary wrote on his official Facebook page as Netanyahu began three hours of talks with his inner circle.
9.41am: The image of a dead preschooler cradled by the prime ministers of Egypt in a hospital hallway has drawn attention to the dangers Gaza's children face in this crowded urban battle zone, AP reported.
Children make up half of Gaza's population of 1.6 million and seemed to be everywhere in the current round of cross-border fighting between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers.
So far, six of 28 Palestinians killed in Israel's offensive this week have been children, ranging in age from just under one to 14 years, according to Gaza health officials. Most were killed by shrapnel while in or near their homes. In Israel, 12 children were hurt in rocket attacks this week.
Israeli anti-riot policemen detain a Palestinian boy during a protest in Aida refugee camp near the West Bank city of Bethlehem. AFP PHOTO/MUSA AL SHAER Source: AFP
8.29am: Israel Defence Force spokesman tweets: The Fajr-5 missile, a primary target of the IDF's air strikes. Range of 75km - millions under threat.
7.29am: The BBC is forced to issue another humiliating apology after mistakenly broadcasting Chief Rabbi of Britain Lord Jonathan Sacks' unguarded comments accusing Iran of being part of the Gaza conflict, the Daily Mail reported.
Asked for his reaction to the Gaza situation, he sighed: "I think it's got to do with Iran, actually."
6.49am: The Al Jazeera network have created a useful mashup, mapping social media posts from "average people and officials living through violent times".
You can access it here.
Al Jazeera have created an interactive map that plots social media posts across the region of conflict. Source: Supplied
6.38am: More detail has come in on that airstrike on the Maghazi refugee camp - which is home to about 24,000 refugees within an 0.6 square kilometre area, has seven schools and a makeshift health centre.
One source in Gaza names three of the dead as Amjad, Zeyad and Amad, all from the Abu Jalal family and one a Hamas military field commander. The BBC said Hamas TV is reporting that Ahmad Abu-Bilal, a Hamas military commander, and two of his brothers died in the strike.
A picture taken from the southern Israeli Gaza border shows a rockets being launched from the Gaza strip into Israel. AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ Source: AFP
The bombing of Gaza has continued throughout the night, Al Jazeera says.
It's not the first time an Israeli airstrike has hit Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza - this is the aftermath of an attack in 2009. Picture: AP Source: AP
6.08am: The New York Times reports that a suspected Israel collaborator has been summarily executed by masked gunmen on a Gaza street. A billboard hung around the dead man's neck accused him of co-operating with the killing of 15 Palestinian leaders.
Meanwhile, the IDF claims it has "destroyed" Hamas' nascent unmanned drone program. They released a video that they said showed Hamas testing a drone, then dismantling it and storing it in a warehouse.
5.55am: According to Al Jazeera, an airstrike in the Mghazi refugee camp in the centre of Gaza has killed three Palestinians and wounded several others, raising the total death toll to 27.
A source within Gaza says the three "martyrs" included a field commander from Hamas' military wing, the Al Qassam Brigades. The same source added a fourth death from the same strike.
However details and numbers are hazy at this stage.
5.38am: In this CNN interview, just before the three minute mark a bomb attack interrupts the video. Then again at 4.30.
A CNN interview with a Palestinian is interrupted by a nearby blast. Picture: CNN.com Source: Supplied
5.32am: The IDF are using air strikes to try to destroy Hamas' drone infrastructure, the official spokesman says.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports the Israeli military are closing three roads that lead to or border the Gaza strip.
AFP has more details: the main routes around the Gaza Strip have been sealed off to all non-military traffic, with no reason given.
Israeli soldiers gather next to their armoured personnel carriers stationed on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
5.07am: UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon has called for both sides to "stop this dangerous escalation" in the Gaza strip, Reuters reports.
"The Secretary-General is extremely concerned about the continued violence in Gaza and Israel, and deeply worried by the rising cost in terms of civilian lives," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. "Rocket attacks are unacceptable and must stop at once. Israel must exercise maximum restraint."
UN officials say Mr Ban will visit the region soon.
Meanwhile, the IDF is warning Gaza residents of a "second phase" of attacks against Hamas:
Gaza resident Rana posted online this photo of a text message she received from the IDF, warning her to "stay away from Hamas elements" because "the second phase is coming". Picture: Instagram Source: Supplied
4.59am: The IDF continue to make innovative use of social media as part of their online propaganda war with Hamas.
They have just released a 'fact check' video on YouTube that, to the backing of some rather snazzy music, runs through a list of "false" Hamas claims.
4.50am The Israeli cabinet has reportedly approved the recruitment of 75,000 reserve soldiers. However a ground assault on Gaza is not yet a certainty.
Meanwhile, air raid sirens have sounded in Israeli settlements in Hebron, a West Bank city 30km south of Jerusalem, an IDF spokesman said. The city is mostly Palestinian.
A woman sits in her car as a tank on a flat-bed truck is parked next to her at a petrol station in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
4.33am: Sheera Frenkel, of The Times and NPR, has been told by an Israeli official the rockets hitting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem were made in Iran (this contradicts Hamas militants who claim they were 'homemade').
She also notes that in Tel Aviv, restaurant cashiers are asking for names with takeaway orders "so if you have to run we'll know it's yours when you return".
And in more grim news:
4.20am: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has called for his people to unite in the face of Israeli "aggression".
From his West Bank headquarters he said the outbreak of violence would not derail his plan to seek non-member status at the United Nations General Assembly at the end of the month.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman told his counterparts in Europe that "Israel will not be satisfied with a ceasefire that will be broken within a week or two, and intends to create a deterrent effect that will prevent the Palestinians in Gaza from employing terrorism against Israel."
Palestinian protestors hold up the Islamist Hamas flag and portraits of assassinated Hamas leader Ahmed Jaabari during a rally in the West Bank city of Hebron. Picture: AFP Source: AFP
4.06am: An Iraqi official has said Baghdad will recommend that Arab states use oil as a weapon to exert pressure on Israel and countries that back it, particularly the United States, over the Gaza crisis.
"Playing the economic card is our most powerful weapon at the moment in supporting the Palestinian people, for no military power can currently stand up to Israel," Iraq's permanent Arab League representative Qais al-Azzawi said.
He told reporters in Cairo, where the League has its headquarters, that Baghdad would take this stand at Saturday's emergency meeting of foreign ministers from the pan-Arab body called by Egypt to discuss Gaza.
A picture taken from the southern Israeli Gaza border shows smoke billowing from a spot targeted by an Israeli air strike inside the Gaza strip. Picture: Jack Guez Source: AFP
3.58am: There are reports that Israel is fast-tracking deployment of 'Iron Dome 2', an upgrade to the missile defence system that is trying to intercept rockets coming from Gaza.
On Thursday, Iron Dome intercepted about 90 of the 250 rockets fired at Israel (the system ignores rockets headed for empty ground). It reportedly costs $45,000 a shot.
Here is a video of Iron Dome in action:
3.35am: The IDF have written a blog post in which they say they "often" abort air strikes when civilians are seen in the area.
On Thursday morning, they say, "intelligence collecting aircraft" spotted the site of a rocket launch in Gaza, and Air Force aircraft were sent to strike the area. "We saw that innocent civilians were approaching the area of the underground launch site," said Lt Omer, who took part in the operation. "We immediately contacted the forces and instructed them to abort the strike."
However, the blog writers say, it is "not easy" to avoid civilian casualties - and they admit "many innocent bystanders" get killed by IDF strikes.
3.25am: There is terrible grief on both sides of this conflict, as families mourn lost loved ones even as bombs fall around them.
These pictures are from two funerals, one in Gaza, one in Israel.
Palestinian women cry during the funeral of Tahrer Salman and Mohammed Salman in north Gaza. According to relatives, the two members of the Salman family were killed by an Israeli airstrike. Picture: AP Source: AP
Relatives take cover during a rocket attack during the funeral for Itzik Amsalem, 49, one of the three people who died in Kiryat Malachi, Israel from a rocket fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Picture: Getty Source: Getty Images
3.10am: If you de-blurred this picture, in a photo of the IDF commanders, you'd probably know what they're planning to do next in Operation Pillar of Defence.
In this photo tweeted by the IDF official spokesman, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz & senior commanders discuss Operation Pillar Of Defense in southern Israel. Picture: pic.twitter.com/jqaDw9bF Source: Supplied
2.59am: The IDF say 600 airstrikes with 20 dead is an "amazing" achievement.
Meanwhile, Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak has expanded the call-up of reserve soldiers, probably in preparation for a major assault in the Gaza Strip.
2.50am: The Jewish settlement of Ma'ale Amos, reportedly just hit by a missile from Gaza, is about 20km south of Jerusalem.
It is a small community of about 79 families, mostly Ashkenazi Jews who commute into the city.
View Larger Map
2.42am: A BBC correspondent says the rocket hit the main gate of the Maale Amos settlement, within the Etzion Bloc in the West Bank.
Meanwhile the Israeli response is intensifying. The BBC reports that by this time yesterday Israel had fired at 225 targets in Gaza. The figure now is over 600: it has more than doubled in 24 hours.
2.26am: Reuters correspondent Dan Williams reports the missiles landed in the hills to Jerusalem's south.
Early reports say they may have hit in Etzion Bloc, an Israeli settlement in the West Bank. Still no news of damage or casualties.
A tunnel and bridge lead from the Jerusalem suburb of Gilo to the West Bank settlements of the Etzion bloc, pictured here in 2004. Picture: Justin McIntosh / Wikimedia Commons Source: Supplied
2.16am: The IDF tweets "Confirmed: A rocket fired from Gaza struck outside Jerusalem, Israel's capital city. "
If confirmed, says the BBC, "this is believed to be the first time militants in the Gaza Strip have attempted to target Jerusalem".
And the armed wing of Hamas has claimed responsibility.
1.57am: Journalists on the ground report a missile, apparently from Gaza, has hit close to Jerusalem.
1.27am: The Israeli Defence Force has taken to social media to make its case. The IDF has its own Flickr, Tumblr, Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter accounts. It also has a blog, which includes a "rocket counter" (though it seems to be down right now). The UPI press agency has more on the IDF's social media push here.
1.15am: Hamas militants from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades have executed a man on charges of "collaborating" with Israel as warplanes pounded Gaza, Palestinian sources said.
"The Qassam Brigades on Friday executed a collaborator for providing guidance and information on the locations of the resistance and their rocket launchers to the Israeli occupation," a source told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Medical sources confirmed that a picture circulating on social media networks purporting to show the executed man's body was authentic.
Israeli D9 bulldozers are stationed at the Israeli-Gaza Strip border. Picture: Jack Guez Source: AFP
1.03am: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has added her voice to the call for a peaceful resolution to the fighting.
"The federal chancellor calls on the Egyptian government to use its influence on Hamas to push it towards a moderation of the violence," Merkel's deputy spokesman Georg Streiter said in Berlin.
President Vladimir Putin told Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi in a telephone call that Russia supports Egypt's efforts to halt the escalating violence in Gaza, the Kremlin said.
In Brussels, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Israel had the right to protect its people against Gaza rocket attacks but urged it to stick to a "proportionate" response.
A Palestinian demonstrator runs through a cloud of tear gas during clashes against Israel's operations in Gaza Strip, outside Ofer, an Israeli military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday. Picture: AP Source: AP
12.55am: Police and a witness say a rocket fired by militants crashed into the sea off Tel Aviv in the second incident in as many days, as sirens wailed across the city.
The rocket was the farthest that one from Gaza had ever hit inside Israel, and it sparked panic among beachgoers, although several people tried to swim out to the point where the rocket landed, the witness said.
12.30am: Thousands of people across the Middle East have protested on against Israel's aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with some chanting "death to Israel" and others calling for the bombing of Tel Aviv.
In Cairo, several thousand protesters gathered outside Al-Azhar mosque after weekly Muslim prayers and chanted "We will go to Gaza in our millions," swearing to "sacrifice ourselves for you, Palestine".
President Mohamed Morsi himself branded the Israeli assault in which 23 Palestinians have been killed as a "blatant aggression against humanity and promised that "Egypt will not leave Gaza on its own", MENA news agency said.
Israeli anti-riot policemen detain a Palestinian man during a protest in Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City. Picture: Ahmad Gharabli Source: AFP
11.45pm: A Palestinian rocket has targeted Tel Aviv on the third day of an Israeli military operation against the Gaza Strip.
Sirens wailed across the city Friday afternoon shortly before the explosion sounded out.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says no injuries have been reported and it appears the rocket landed in the Mediterranean.
An Israeli missile is launched from the Iron Dome missile system in the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheva in response to a rocket launch from the nearby Palestinian Gaza Strip, on November 15, 2012. Israel yesterday killed a top Hamas military commander in a targeted strike in Gaza on Wednesday, prompting outrage from militants who said the Jewish state had opened "the gates of hell." AFP PHOTO/MENAHEM KAHANA Source: AFP
Earlier:
ISRAELI aircraft pummelled the rocket arsenals of Gaza militants on Friday and signalled a ground invasion might be growing near as troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers massed near Israel's southern border with the Palestinian territory.
Fighting between the two sides escalated sharply with a first-ever militant attack on the Tel Aviv area, menacing Israel's heartland.
No casualties were reported, but three people died in the country's rocket-scarred south when a projectile slammed into an apartment building.
The death toll in the densely populated Palestinian territory climbed to 19, including five children according to Palestinian health officials, as waves of Israeli fighter planes and drones sent missiles hurtling down on suspected weapons stores and rocket-launching sites.
Image: Google Maps Source: No Source
Troops massing on the border
At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers toward Gaza late Thursday, and buses carrying soldiers headed toward the border area.
Israeli TV stations said a Gaza operation was expected on Friday, though military officials said no decision had been made.
"We will continue the attacks and we will increase the attacks, and I believe we will obtain our objectives," said Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel's military chief.
An Israeli ground offensive could be costly to both sides. In the last Gaza war, Israel devastated large areas of the territory, setting back Hamas' fighting capabilities but also paying the price of increasing diplomatic isolation because of a civilian death toll numbering in the hundreds.
How the crisis has unfolded
