Israel bombarded scores of targets in Gaza on Tuesday, reportedly killing five Palestinians and stepping up what may become a long-term offensive against Islamist group Hamas.
The Israeli government has given the military permission to mobilize up to 40,000 additional reservists as it steps up an offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reported.
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The Israeli government has given the military permission to mobilize up to 40,000 additional reservists as it steps up an offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Associated Press reported.
Israeli residents take cover in a concrete pipe used as a bomb shelter, as a siren warning of incoming rockets is sounded in the southern community of Nitzan, near Ashdod, on Tuesday. (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)
The Palestinian dead included a commander in the group's armed wing, a pro-Hamas website said.
There has been a surge in Palestinian rocket strikes on Israeli towns.
Following the worst outbreak of violence along the Gaza frontier since an eight-day war in 2012, the Israeli military said a ground invasion of the enclave was possible, though not imminent, and urged citizens within a range of 40 kilometres of the coastal territory to stay close to bomb shelters.
A Palestinian medic tends to an injured person into Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital following an Israeli air strike on July 08, 2014 . Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza with more than 50 strikes after Hamas militants fired scores of rockets over the border, dragging the two sides towards a major conflict. (Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)
A source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office quoted the Israeli leader as saying: "The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) must be ready to go all the way. All options are on the table, including a ground invasion."
Tuesday's decision came hours after Israel launched an offensive aimed at stopping weeks of heavy rocket fire out of Gaza.
Unrest flared on the Israel-Gaza border last month after Israel arrested hundreds of Hamas activists in the occupied West Bank, where three Israeli youths went missing on June 12.
The military said "Operation Protective Edge" looks to strike the Islamic group Hamas and end the rocket fire that has reached deeper into Israel and intensified in recent weeks amid tensions over the killing of three Israeli teenagers and the apparent revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager.
The Iron Dome air-defence system fires to intercept a rocket over the city of Ashdod, Israel, on Tuesday. In the past three weeks, more then 130 rockets were reportedly fired from Gaza into Israel. (Ilia/Yefimovich/Getty Images)
In a statement, the military said it was seeking to "retrieve stability to the residents of southern Israel, eliminate Hamas' capabilities and destroy terror infrastructure operating against the State of Israel and its civilians."
Nearly 300 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israel in recent weeks, including a barrage of close to 100 projectiles on Monday alone, the military said, a huge surge after years of relative quiet that followed a previous Israeli campaign to root out Gaza rocket launchers.
"We have repeatedly warned Hamas that this must stop and Israel's defence forces are currently acting to put an end of this once and for all," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A member of Israeli security forces looks at the damage to a chicken farm from a rocket fired from Gaza Strip on July 7, 2014. About a dozen rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza overnight the military said. (Tsafrir Abayov/Associated Press)
Israel has responded with dozens of airstrikes, and eight Palestinian militants were killed Monday. Israel had signaled that it would not launch a larger offensive if the militant group Hamas ceased the rocket fire.
"They chose the direction of escalation," said military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, in a telephone briefing to reporters. "So the mission will go on as long as we feel it is necessary to carry it out. We don't expect it to be a short mission on our behalf."
After a brief early morning lull, the rocket fire from Gaza resumed Tuesday with more than 15 rockets fired toward southern Israel, including the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. The Associated Press video showed launches from inside Gaza.
The military said five were intercepted by the country's sophisticated Iron Dome missile defence system. A German cruise operator docking in the Ashdod port said debris fell onto one of its ships late Monday as it was departing.
An Israeli soldier performs a morning prayer in a deployment area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday. Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza with more than 50 strikes overnight after Hamas militants fired scores of rockets over the border. (David Buimovitch/AFP/Getty Images)
None of the 2,700 vacationers and crew aboard the AIDAdiva was harmed. "However, small debris that according to experts could have come from a defence missile were found on the passenger deck," the company said. The ship continued to Crete without delay.
Israel's defence minister announced a special state of emergency in the region Tuesday as summer camps and kindergartens were shut down and residents were encouraged to stay close to their homes.
Among the 50 sites the military said it targeted early Tuesday were four houses it said were "activity sites" belonging to Hamas militants involved in launching rockets at Israel or other militant activity. There were no reported casualties in the strikes.
Palestinians try to salvage what they can of their belongings from the rubble of a house destroyed by an overnight Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. (Khalil Hamra/Associated Press)
The military identified the men whose houses were targeted as Eiad Sakik, Abdullah Hshash, Samer Abu Daka, and Hassan Abdullah. The Associated Press filmed Abu Daka and Abdullah's demolished homes in the Khan Younis area of the Gaza Strip.
In addition, the military said it struck three militant compounds, 18 concealed rocket launchers, and other militant infrastructure sites. Most were targeted in airstrikes, and three were attacked from the sea.
Gaza health official Ashraf Al-Kedra said at least nine Palestinian civilians were brought to a Gaza hospital with light to moderate injuries from the airstrikes, including several who suffered from shock. He said some of the injured Palestinians were treated and released.
An Israeli boy attends the joint funeral of three Israeli teens, Gil-Ad Shaer, U.S.-Israeli national Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, and Eyal Yifrah, 19, who were abducted and killed in the occupied West Bank, in the Israeli city of Modi'in July 1, 2014. (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)
Lerner, the military spokesman, said the army will gradually increase its attacks on Hamas in Gaza, and is recruiting additional reservists for a potential ground invasion of Gaza.
Hamas has amassed about 10,000 rockets, including longer-range rockets that can reach "up to Tel Aviv and beyond," Lerner said, adding that the military was preparing for the possibility that Hamas would launch rockets toward Israel's heartland and its commercial and cultural hub.
The military ordered hundreds of thousands of Israelis within a 40-kilometre (25-mile) radius of the Gaza Strip, including Israelis in the major southern city of Beersheva, to stay indoors and near shelters.
Lerner said last month's kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank was connected to the intensified rocket fire carried out by Hamas militants in Gaza. Israel blames Hamas for the teens' abduction and is conducting a manhunt for two Hamas-affiliated Palestinians in the West Bank it believes carried out the kidnapping and killing.
A Palestinian inspects the damage to her home, which was reportedly struck by debris when Israeli airstrikes destroyed a nearby building Tuesday. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
The Israeli government has not yet provided proof of Hamas' involvement in the kidnapping.
"The abduction of the three boys only cost them, and they had no gains from it," Lerner said. "Therefore they have increased their involvement in rocket fire," adding that nearly all of the rocket fire at Israel Monday was carried out by Hamas, not militants affiliated with other groups. He said Hamas was "trying to gain clout."
Tensions have been high since three Israeli teenagers kidnapped June 12 in the West Bank were later found dead, followed by last week's slaying of the Palestinian youth in what many suspect was a revenge attack.
A Palestinian woman wearing a mask holds her son as she stands outside her house which police said was damaged in an Israeli air strike on a neighbouring house in Gaza City on Tuesday. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)
The charged climate inspired President Barack Obama to pen an op-ed for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
"All parties must protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not vengeance and retribution," Obama said in the piece published Tuesday.
Obama warned of a "dangerous moment" for the region after the collapse of U.S.-backed peace talks.
"As I said last year in Jerusalem, peace is necessary, just, and possible. I believed it then. I believe it now," he wrote. "Peace is necessary because it's the only way to ensure a secure and democratic future for the Jewish state of Israel."
