Gaza: Israel Prepares To Expand Offensive

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced at a cabinet meeting that the country is ready to "significantly expand" its Gaza offensive.

The bombardment of Gaza by Israel entered a new phase overnight, with Israel shelling the Palestinian territory from the sea, as well as continuing its airstrikes.

A Palestinian official told AFP news agency  this morning that a truce is possible "today or tomorrow".

Palestinians in Gaza this morning fired two rockets at Tel Aviv which were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air shield, witnesses and police said.

Some 30,000 Israeli soldiers have already been called up

Gaza's Hamas militants said they launched two Iranian-designed Fajr-5 rockets at the Israeli city.

It is the fourth straight day that Hamas-fired rockets have set of sirens in Tel Aviv.

Earlier, a toddler was killed and his two brothers wounded in the latest Israeli airstrike on Gaza, emergency services said.

The 18-month-old Palestinian boy died in a strike east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya told the AFP news agency.

Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qudra said the two wounded boys, aged four and five, were "in critical condition".

The latest airstrikes come as Egypt's President suggested that there could be a ceasefire soon.

Mr Morsi said: "There are now intensive efforts through communication channels with the Palestinian side and with the Israeli side and there are now some indications that there is possibility of a ceasefire soon between the two sides."

Forty-eight Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 13 children, have now been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said.

Militants in Gaza resumed firing rockets into Israel this morning, with at least one landing in Ashkelon in southern Israel.

A media centre in Gaza was targeted in the airstrikes

More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since the recent violence flared on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Two buildings housing local Arab media in Gaza were among the targets in the latest airstrikes.

Among the buildings hit was a media centre housing the offices of al Quds TV, often a voicepiece for Hamas. Three journalists were wounded.

Both buildings also contained offices used by foreign journalists, including Sky News.

"I think that this demonstrates just how dangerous and complex with aerial bombardment is," said Sky's Sam Kiley.

Two other pre-dawn attacks on houses in the Jebalya refugee camp killed one child and wounded 12 other people, medical officials said.

These attacks followed a defiant statement by Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida.

"This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning."

The masked gunman dressed in military fatigues insisted that despite Israel's blows Hamas "is still strong enough to destroy the enemy".

A plume of thick black smoke is seen rising from Gaza City

On Saturday Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.

Israel has said it will keep schools in its southern region closed as a precaution to avoid casualties from rocket strikes, which have reached as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the past few days.

Israel unleashed its massive air campaign on Wednesday, killing a leading militant of the Hamas Islamist group that controls Gaza and rejects Israel's existence.

Israel says it is trying to stop militants in the coastal enclave from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years.

The Jewish state has since launched more than 950 air strikes since Wednesday.

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