Palestinian militants have fired more rockets at Israeli cities and Israel carried out dozens of air raids on Gaza overnight, as hostilities intensified.
Israel said four rockets hit southern Israel overnight and a number were shot down over Tel Aviv on Wednesday.
The Israeli military said there were 160 strikes on Gaza overnight in response to the rocket attacks.
The health ministry in Gaza says 25 Palestinians have been killed and 70 hurt in the recent hostilities.
The ministry said that four women and three children were among the dead.
The military wing of Hamas has warned that all Israelis are now targets.
Netanyahu vow
Israel's military said that overnight it had targeted 118 concealed rocket launchers, 10 Hamas command and control centres and 10 tunnels.
It brought to 440 the number of targets in Gaza attacked as part of "Operation Protective Edge".
Yolande Knell reports on Hamas anger at deaths from Israeli strikes on Gaza
The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says rockets fired from Gaza reached the Jerusalem area in the hours before midnight, although they fell without causing injury.
Iron Dome interceptor missiles shot down five rockets around Tel Aviv on Wednesday morning, army radio said.
The town of Hadera 100km (60 miles) north of Gaza, was also attacked, with an M-302 surface-to-surface rocket, the furthest target so far reached.
"No other country lives under such a threat, and no country would accept such a threat," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement late on Tuesday.
Israel said it hit dozens of "terror sites" in Gaza
Hamas rocket fire hits the Israeli city of Ashdod
Palestinians clash with Israeli soldiers at the Beit El Jewish settlement near Ramallah in the West Bank
"We have therefore significantly expanded our operations against Hamas and the other terrorist organisations in Gaza."
Israel has warned it may send ground troops into Gaza to stop the rocket attacks. It has authorised the call-up of up to 40,000 military reservists. Hundreds of reservists have already been drafted to bolster forces around Gaza.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Mr Netanyahu, admitted the situation was more one of escalation than de-escalation.
He told the BBC that efforts to try to calm the situation had failed as Hamas had continued to fire rockets, and the Israeli army was "now acting to put an end to this" by "dismantling Hamas's military machine".
"We don't want to have some sort of band-aid solution whereby we have a quick fix, a ceasefire and then we only have rockets on Israeli citizens next week," he said.
The military wing of Hamas has vowed that Israel will pay a "tremendous price" for the air strikes
The Israeli military has sent reinforcements to the frontier with Gaza
0 comments:
Post a Comment