The Israeli air force bombed 160 targets in Gaza overnight as it pressed a widescale campaign to stop volleys of Palestinian rocket fire, an army official said this morning.
"Overnight, the IDF hit about 160 targets in the Gaza Strip. Over the last two days we attacked a total of about 430 targets," General Moti Almoz told military radio.
It is the second day of a military operation dubbed Operation Protective Edge.
At least 23 people have been killed across Gaza in recent days, Palestinian officials said today.
They said at least 17 civilians, including five children, were among the dead.
On the Israeli side, at least two people were wounded, medics said.
Mr Almoz said the targets included about 120 concealed rocket launchers, ten Hamas command and control centres, among them two homes, and many tunnels.
He said the Islamist movement has been "forced into a corner" and was trying to launch attacks on multiple fronts.
"Last night, Hamas started to unveil its surprises," he said referring to an attempted attack by sea and the barrage of long-range rockets fired at cities as far away as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the northern coastal city of Hadera, which is more than 100km from Gaza.
"Hamas was trying to surprise and find the weak points and penetrate Israel by sea or through tunnels; these incidents were thwarted very successfully by the IDF," he said.
The rocket fire continued early today, with army radio reporting that at least five projectiles from Gaza were shot down over Tel Aviv and its surrounds by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades claimed the rocket fire, saying it had launched four M75 rockets at Israel's commercial capital.
Mr Almoz said, meanwhile, that an incident at Kerem Shalom, location of the main goods crossing between Israel and southern Gaza, was still "ongoing".
Interior Minister Gidon Saar, a member of security cabinet, said the military had been given orders to "significantly" expand the campaign.
"We didn't limit the campaign in terms of time, in fact we ordered the IDF to significantly broaden the attacks on Hamas and to do everything to return the quiet and ensure a significant blow to Hamas and the terror organisations in Gaza," he told the radio.
Israel, he said, was going into the widening operation with its "eyes very much open".
"We're ready for every possibility, including a ground operation if necessary, although it's not going to be the first step.
"But there is a readiness for that and that's why we ordered the call-up of 40,000 reserve soldiers," he said.
Israel would not stop until it had dealt a decisive blow to the militant groups operating out of Gaza, he said.
"Hamas is firing, and it must first of all stop, but we won't be satisfied with just that without a very, very significant and broad blow to Hamas and the entire terror infrastructure in Gaza."
Jordan calls for immediate halt to air strikes
Meanwhile, Jordan, one of just two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, has demanded an immediate halt to deadly Israeli air raids against Gaza.
Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said that the raids that killed more than 20 Palestinians in purported response to rocket fire that has killed no one in Israel were "barbaric".
http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0709/629478-gaza-israel/
Now I'm no big fan of rockets being lobbed into any city. But can you imagine if Britain flattened I don't no say Dundalk after the IRA bombing of Manchester or launched 160 strikes on suspected IRA men's homes after the Brightom bombing? Crazy sh!t.
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