An explosion caused by Israeli airstrikes on the building of Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station in Gaza City. Photos / AP
An explosion caused by Israeli airstrikes on the building of Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station in Gaza City. Photos / AP
A new round of hostilities triggered by a botched Israeli covert operation into the Gaza Strip pushed the territory's fragile security situation to the brink today.
Palestinian militants launched hundreds of rockets towards Israel and Israeli jets carried out bombing raids.
Israel's military said it had rushed extra infantry troops and air defences to the boundary with Gaza as at least 200 projectiles were launched towards Israeli territory in less than three hours.
At least two projectiles hit houses, while an anti-tank missile hit a bus transporting soldiers near the border, the military said, critically injuring a 19-year-old soldier.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, called the situation "unacceptable" and said Israel had hit more than 30 targets belonging to Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad, another large extremist group in the territory.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said three people were killed and at least two injured in the air raids.
Seven Palestinian militants, including a Hamas commander, were killed yesterday as a group of Israeli special forces carried out an operation inside Gaza.
Armed factions in Gaza said they were retaliating for Israel's "aggressive crime" by firing rockets at communities across the border, which they vowed would "remain unlivable" as long as Israel continues such actions.
Hamas leader Basem Naim said that Israeli jets demolished the five-storey building belonging to Hamas's al-Aqsa television.
The Foreign Press Association expressed concern that Hamas security had prevented two German journalists and a photojournalist from leaving Gaza, citing the "security situation".
The violence threatened to derail stuttering efforts in recent months to forge a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a process that has been brokered by Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar.
Israeli firefighters work at the scene where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit in Sderot, Israel.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in 10 years, with flare-ups becoming increasingly frequent in recent months as Hamas has urged residents to protest at the fence along the border with Israel.
The prospects for progress appeared bright at the weekend after Israel permitted US$15 million in cash from Qatar into Gaza to pay long-delayed salaries of the Hamas-Government's civil servants to ease the suffering of the territory's two million residents and reduce tension.
But by today, thick plumes of smoke were rising above Gaza and southern Israel.
Warning sirens blared in communities on the Israeli side, with residents told to stay in bomb shelters. Israeli television showed images of a supermarket on fire, with media reporting that at least 12 people had been injured by rocket fire.
Militant factions in Gaza described the targeting of the bus near the border as a "heroic operation" in response to the "treacherous Zionist crime" a day earlier.
The Israeli military remained tight-lipped about the incident but said a covert operation was underway at least 3.2km inside the Gaza Strip when the unit's presence was somehow exposed.
Flares fired from Israeli forces light up the night sky in Gaza City.
An exchange of fire between the troops and Palestinian fighters ensued, turning deadly and leading to the Israeli unit's call for backup from the air.
Lieutenant-General Gadi Eisenkot, chief of the general staff of the Israel Defence Forces, said the team was involved in a "very meaningful operation for Israel's security".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short his trip to Paris when news broke that an operation by Israeli special forces officers inside Gaza had gone awry.
A statement from the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, said "Zionist enemy special forces," in a civilian car, reached 3.2km into Gaza, east of the Palestinian town of Khan Younis.
Nour Baraka, a local Hamas leader, was "assassinated," the statement said. It also described how the Israeli soldiers' identities were uncovered and how the unit was "dealt with by our fighters".
IDF says some 300 rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip today.
This is the largest number of projectiles fired from Gaza in a single day ever, including during the 2014 war, according to Shin Bet statistics. pic.twitter.com/mpOP9ZNR6V
Residents in the area said a group of Qassam Brigade fighters stopped the vehicle carrying the Israelis to check their identities. It was then that the Israeli unit shot Baraka and another militant dead.
The Israeli vehicle sped off with two Hamas cars in pursuit. Israeli airstrikes killed the five other militants, they said, adding that Israeli military jets pounded targets as they aided in extracting the soldiers.
Conricus said the operation, "like many others similar to it," was part of an ongoing effort against "different terrorist organisations." He said that its mission was not to kill or kidnap but said he could not provide further details.
The Israeli army did not released the identity of the dead soldier because of his involvement in similar undercover operations.
