Death toll in Gaza Strip rises to 80, air raid sirens and blasts in Tel Aviv
10 July 2014, 13:07 -- The death toll in Israel's intense bombardments of the Gaza Strip has reached 80 missile fire between the Israeli military and Gaza militants escalating. For the second day in a row, rockets fired by Palestinian militants reached the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, the country's financial capital.
Intense Israeli airstrikes continued overnight throughout the Gaza Strip, where black pillars of smoke have been rising since Israel launched operation Protective Edge before dawn Tuesday, in response to an escalation in rocket attacks from the salient.
Gaza deaths included seven people watching the World Cup at the seaside and eight members of the same family in a demolished house.
Many of the Gaza deaths were of civilians hurt by flying shrapnel or in airstrikes against the houses of suspected militants, witnesses said. More than 550 Palestinians have been injured, reported the Alray news agency of Hamas, the Islamist movement in de facto control of the densely populated coastal enclave.
Meanwhile, many of the missiles fired at Israel's largest cities were shot down by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system.
Air raids sounded in Tel Aviv at 08:00 am local time (05:00 am GMT) for the second morning in a row, followed by several loud detonations.
Israel's Channel 2 reported that five missiles were downed over the greater Tel Aviv area. An Israeli military spokeswoman said she could only immediately confirm one Iron Dome interception. Forces on the ground were still checking whether there were any impacts.
The Israeli military has called up 20,000 reserve soldiers for a possible ground offensive, spokesman Peter Lerner said.
The Israeli government at the start of the offensive authorized, in principle, the military to call up double that.
A ground offensive remained a last resort and Israel was still weighing the pros and cons, Lieutenant Colonel Lerner told reporters.
He said the offensive is more intense than the last incursion into Gaza, in November 2012. Within 48 hours, the Israel Air Force has attacked 750 targets, compared to 1,450 in the eight days of fighting in 2012.
Hamas has claimed responsibility for the latest rockets launched toward Tel Aviv.
A 4-year-old boy died of shrapnel wounds sustained in an Israeli airstrike on an agricultural field north of Gaza City, Alray said.
Three militants of the Quds Brigades - the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad faction which has claimed responsibility for many of the long-range missiles launched deep into Israel - were killed in a targeted airstrike against their car in northern Gaza City Thursday morning.
Eight members of one family were also killed when Israel bombed the house of a suspected wanted militant in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis before daw. Hamas claimed the Haj family had not received an advance telephone warning by the Israeli military, as has been the practice for other cases before Israel has attacked the homes of other militants.
And at least seven civilian men were killed in the bombing of a cafe on the beach of Khan Younis, with more than 10 injured, as they were watching the World Cup semi-final between Holland and Argentina, Hamas said.
An Israeli military spokesman was not immediately able to specify what the intended militant target had been and said Israel is checking the incidents of the civilians deaths.
Gaza launches are striking further north than ever before, with some witnesses reporting strikes as north as the Hof Hacarmel region, just south of the port city of Haifa. The military has neither confirmed nor denied these accounts.
Hamas also said it had attempted a launch at Israel's nuclear reactor in Dimona.
Either incident would represent an escalation in the conflict, increasing tension on the Israeli side.
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