An Israeli air strike has demolished the offices of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, according to radio reports.

The strike came as Israel responded “forcefully” to a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, according to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The strike in Gaza came moments after Israel fired a pair of warning shots at the office, a tactic the military uses to get people to evacuate targeted buildings.

There were no immediate reports of casualties. Seven people were hurt in the blast (AP)

Mr Haniyeh had gone into hiding earlier on Monday, fearing retaliation after a rocket fired from Gaza struck an Israeli home and wounded seven people in central Israel.

In a written statement, he said the Palestinian people “will not surrender” and its militant factions “will deter the enemy if it exceeds the red lines.”

Speaking at the White House, Mr Netanyahu said he would “not tolerate” the rocket strike, which struck a home in central Israel and wounded seven people.

“As we speak, Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression,” Mr Netanyahu said.

He said Israel will do “whatever we must do” to defend itself.

Mr Haniyeh said his group would respond if Israel retaliated too forcefully.

The Israeli military had earlier reinforced troops along the Gaza border and called up reserves after the rocket attack. </s> GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Hamas media say Israeli airstrike has destroyed office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> Hamas media say Israeli airstrike has destroyed office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas media say Israeli airstrike has destroyed office of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. </s> * Signs of preparations for possible Israeli invasion

GAZA/JERUSALEM, Nov 17 Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza on Saturday, including the prime minister's office, after Israel's cabinet authorised the mobilisation of up to 75,000 reservists, preparing for a possible ground invasion.

Israeli planes shattered the office building of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh - where he had met on Friday with the Egyptian prime minister - and struck the Interior Ministry.

Loud explosions regularly rocked the densely populated Palestinian territory, sending plumes of smoke billowing into the sky. The occasional hiss of outgoing rocket fire showed Islamist militants were pursuing their defiance of the assault.

Despite the violence, Tunisia's foreign minister arrived in the coastal enclave on Saturday in a show of solidarity, denouncing the Israeli attacks as illegitimate and unacceptable.

Officials in Gaza said 41 Palestinians, among them 20 civilians including eight children and a pregnant woman, had been killed in Gaza since Israel began operations four days ago. Three Israeli civilians were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Israel's military said its air force had hit at least 180 targets since midnight, including a police headquarters, government buildings, rocket launching squads and a Hamas training facility in the impoverished territory.

A three-storey house belonging to Hamas official Abu Hassan Salah was also hit and completely destroyed early on Saturday. Rescuers said at least 30 people were pulled from the rubble.

"What Israel is doing is not legitimate and is not acceptable at all," Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem said as he visited Haniyeh's wrecked headquarters. "It does not have total immunity and is not above international law."

Israel launched a massive air campaign on Wednesday with the declared aim of deterring Hamas from launching cross-border rocket salvoes that have plagued southern Israel for years.

The Palestinians have fired hundreds of rockets out of Gaza, including one at Jerusalem and three at Tel Aviv - Israel's commercial centre. Jerusalem had not been targeted in such a way since 1970, and Tel Aviv since 1991.

Although there were no reports of casualties or damage in either city, the long-range attacks came as a shock and advanced the prospect of an Israeli ground invasion into Gaza

"This will last as long as is needed; we have not limited ourselves in means or in time," Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Israel's Channel One television on Saturday.

Hamas says it is committed to continued confrontation with Israel and is eager not to seem any less resolute than smaller, more radical groups that have emerged in Gaza in recent years.

The Islamist Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007. Israel pulled settlers out of Gaza in 2005 but has maintained a blockade of the territory.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a four-hour strategy session late on Friday with a clutch of senior ministers on widening the military campaign, while other cabinet members were polled by telephone on increasing mobilisation.

Political sources said they decided to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000. It did not necessarily mean all would be called up.

Three soldiers were lightly hurt by fire from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the army said.

Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil paid a high-profile visit to Gaza on Friday, denouncing what he described as Israeli aggression and saying Cairo was prepared to mediate a ceasefire.

Egypt's Islamist government, which took power after free elections following an uprising that ousted veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak, is allied with Hamas but also party to a 1979 peace treaty with Israel.

"Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce," Kandil said.

A Palestinian official with knowledge of Cairo's mediation efforts said on Saturday that Egypt was pursuing a truce.

"Egyptian mediators are continuing their mediation efforts and these will intensify in the coming hours," he told Reuters.

In a further sign Netanyahu might be clearing the way for a ground operation, Israel's armed forces decreed a highway leading to the territory and two roads bordering the enclave of 1.7 million Palestinians off-limits to civilian traffic.

Tanks and self-propelled guns were seen near the sandy border zone on Saturday, and around 16,000 reservists have already been called to active duty.

The Israeli military said some 367 rockets fired from Gaza had hit Israel since Wednesday and at least 222 more were intercepted by its Iron Dome anti-missile system.

Four Iron Domes were deployed initially and a fifth was rushed into action on Saturday, weeks ahead of schedule. The army said it was placed in the Tel Aviv area, showing Israel's concern for the safety of its heavily populated coastline.

Netanyahu is favoured to win a January election, but further rocket strikes against Tel Aviv, a free-wheeling city Israelis equate with New York, and Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its capital, could be political poison for the conservative leader.

U.S. President Barack Obama commended Egypt's efforts to help calm the Gaza violence in a call to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi on Friday, the White House said, and underscored his hope of restoring stability.

In a call with Netanyahu, Obama discussed options for "de-escalating" the situation, the White House added.

Obama "reiterated U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself, and expressed regret over the loss of Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives," a statement on the call said.

Israel Radio's military affairs correspondent said the army's Homefront Command had told municipal officials to make civil defence preparations for the possibility that fighting could drag on for seven weeks. An Israeli military spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

The Gaza conflagration has stirred the pot of a Middle East already boiling from two years of Arab revolutions and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread across borders.

"Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river," Tunisia's Abdesslem told reporters in Gaza.

It is the stiffest challenge yet for Mursi, a veteran politician from the Muslim Brotherhood who was elected this year after protests ended Mubarak's 30-year rule in 2011.

Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood are spiritual mentors of Hamas, yet Mursi has also pledged to respect Cairo's peace accord with Israel, which is seen in the West as the foundation of regional security. Egypt and Israel both receive billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to underwrite their treaty.

Hamas fighters are no match for the Israeli military. The last Gaza war, involving a three-week long Israeli air blitz and ground invasion over the New Year period of 2008-2009, killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt next week to push for an end to the fighting in Gaza, U.N. diplomats said on Friday.

Hamas refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist. By contrast, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules in the nearby West Bank, does recognise Israel, but peace talks between the two sides have been frozen since 2010.

Abbas' supporters say they will push ahead with a plan to have Palestine declared an "observer state" rather than a mere "entity", at the United Nations later this month. </s> An Israeli air strike destroyed Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV building in the Gaza Strip on Monday after a series of warning shots, AFP journalists reported, drawing threats of a harsh response from Palestinian militants.

The strike came as violence again flared between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Hamas confirmed that the building in Gaza City was destroyed, while Islamic Jihad vowed to respond to Israel's action.

No injuries were immediately reported and workers were believed to have evacuated after the warning shots.

The station began broadcasting again a short while after the strike from an undisclosed location.

Israel's military acknowledged hitting the building, saying in a statement "it contributes to Hamas's military actions, including by providing operational messaging to militants, directing and explicitly calling for terror activities against Israel, and providing guidance on how to carry out such terror activities".

It said the station is "owned and operated by Hamas".

Earlier Monday, Israel's aircraft struck Gaza, killing three Palestinians and wounding nine after a barrage of rocket fire into its territory from the enclave.

The flare-up came after a deadly Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday that left Hamas vowing revenge.

The army said an Israeli bus was hit by an anti-tank missile from the Gaza Strip, causing several injuries. A soldier was severely wounded, it said.

Medics reported at least six other Israelis wounded with a number of houses and civilian buildings struck by rockets.

Joint statements from Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire and the missile attack on the bus, which it said was being used by Israeli soldiers.

They said the rocket fire was in revenge for the deadly Israeli operation late Sunday. </s> Israeli warplanes hit the building on Saturday where Anadolu Agency’s office is located.

Israeli warplanes hit the building with at least 5 rockets after warning shots, Anadolu Agency’s correspondent in Jerusalem reported. No injuries or death were reported. Turkish and Palestinian officials strongly condemned the attack launched by Israeli forces.

“Targeting of @AnadoluAgency #Gaza office is new example of Israel’s unrestrained aggression,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Twitter and added: “#Israeli violence against innocent people w/out distinction is a crime against humanity. Those who encourage Israel are also guilty." “Will keep defending #Palestinian cause, even if alone.”

“We strongly condemn Israeli attack on Anadolu Agency office in Gaza that intends to cover up its new crimes,” Turkey's Presidential aide İbrahim Kalın said on twitter.

“We condemn Israel in the strongest possible terms for targeting a building in the West Bank, in which the @anadoluagency office was located,” Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun also said on Twitter. “We urge all governments that claim to defend press freedom, including @USEmbassyTurkey, to join us in condemning the Israeli government,” Altun added.

“Israel's hitting Anadolu Agency's office [in Gaza] is an attempt to get rid of the witnesses, a preparation of massacres in Gaza,” Palestinian government said in a statement.

Turkish Technology and Industry Minister Mustafa Varank gave a phone call to Anadolu Agency’s Director General Şenol Kazancı and wished for quick recovery.

The strikes occurred following reports that two Israeli soldiers had been injured by gunfire near the Gaza-Israel buffer zone on Friday. At least two Palestinians were killed when Israeli warplanes struck Hamas positions in the blockaded Gaza Strip. </s> Israeli fighter jets targeted a Hamas military compound in the northern Gaza Strip Wednesday night, according to the IDF Foreign Press Spokesperson's Unit. </s> By AFP - Nov 13,2018 - Last updated at Nov 13,2018

A bus set ablaze after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, at the Israel-Gaza border near the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, on Monday (AFP photo)

GAZA — Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinians on Monday after a barrage of rocket fire towards its territory from the enclave, as renewed violence threatened to derail efforts to restore calm.

Israel said it had so far struck more than 20 sites in response to some 80 launches from the Hamas-run territory, reportedly rockets and mortars.

Missile defences had intercepted a number of the rockets, the military said.

The forces said an Israeli bus was hit by fire from the Gaza Strip. Medics reported one person severely wounded.

Medics also said six people from the southern Israeli city of Sderot were lightly wounded.

Israeli forces said a rocket hit a house in Netivot, another southern Israeli town.

Gaza's health ministry said three Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strikes.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine group said two were of its members.

Hamas, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire on behalf of all Palestinian groups in Gaza, saying it was in revenge for a deadly Israeli military operation late Sunday.

On Sunday, a clash erupted during an Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip that killed seven Palestinians, including a local commander for Hamas' armed wing, and an Israeli police officer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to Paris and rushed home as tensions rose, and on Monday convened a meeting of security chiefs.

Israel had stressed its covert operation on Sunday was an intelligence-gathering mission and "not an assassination or abduction", but Hamas strongly denounced it and vowed revenge.

Israel signalled that Sunday’s mission did not go as planned and resulted in the clash, which Palestinian officials said included Israeli air strikes.

In the immediate aftermath of the clash, Israel said it identified 17 launches — likely rockets or mortars — towards its territory from Gaza, with three intercepted by missile defences. No injuries were reported.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, said the Israeli special forces team had infiltrated near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip in a civilian car.

Al Qassam agents stopped it and wanted to search it, realised it was an Israeli operation and confronted them, it said in a statement.

An exchange of fire followed in which local Al Qassam commander Nour Baraka was killed along with another member, it said.

The car then attempted to flee and Israeli aircraft provided covering fire.

An Israeli helicopter landed near the fence and took away the special forces troops, according to Al Qassam.

Israeli forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus declined to comment on Al Qassam account “because of the sensitive nature of the operation”.

Israel provided few details on Sunday’s operation, saying it was carried out by special forces and resulted in an “exchange of fire”.

A funeral was held for the seven Palestinians on Monday attended by thousands, including masked Al Qassam members carrying rifles, some firing into the air.

On the Israeli side of the border, residents said they had stayed close to shelters throughout the night.

“I was sitting in my living room and around 10pm or 11pm, I suddenly heard the sound of helicopter gunships firing,” said Gadi Yarkoni, head of a regional council in the area and a resident of Nirim Kibbutz.

“It was right above the village I’m living in. It was very unpleasant.”

The clashes came after months of deadly unrest along the Gaza-Israel border had appeared to be calming.

Recent weeks have seen Israel allow Qatar to provide the Gaza Strip with millions of dollars in aid for salaries as well as fuel to help ease an electricity crisis.

Before the flare-up, Netanyahu had defended his decision to allow Qatar to transfer the cash to Gaza despite criticism from within his own government over the move, saying he wanted to avoid a war if it was not necessary.

Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu’s education minister and right-wing rival, compared the cash flow to “protection money paid to criminals”.

Israel and Palestinians in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and recent months have raised fears of a fourth.

Deadly clashes have accompanied major protests along the Gaza-Israel border that began on March 30.

At least 230 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli fire, the majority shot during protests and clashes, while others died in tank fire or air strikes.

Two Israeli forces personelle have been killed in that time.

Egyptian and UN officials have been mediating between Israel and Hamas in an effort to reach a long-term truce deal. </s> JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli fighter jets hit multiple terror targets in the Gaza Strip Tuesday night after two violent border clashes with Hamas earlier in the day wounded an IDF soldier.

"Throughout the day, IDF troops were targeted in several shooting incidents along the Gaza Strip security fence.

In response, IDF troops conducted strikes throughout the day," the army said in a statement. "The IDF is prepared and ready to act against any terrorist action from the Gaza Strip and is determined to defend the citizens of the State of Israel."

A sniper in Gaza reportedly hit and lightly wounded an IDF soldier during one of the clashes. The IDF tweeted a picture of the bullet's damage.

"Pictured: An IDF officer's helmet after a terrorist in #Gaza shot at him during a riot on Israel's border fence. Also pictured: Proof that Hamas sends ARMED terrorists to attack Israelis, while surrounded by civilians and under the guise of 'protests,'" the army said.

The IDF immediately responded to the shooting by destroying a Hamas observation post, killing one terrorist and wounding two others.

The wounded IDF soldier was taken to Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center for treatment. He was released hours later.

In addition to Israel's aerial strikes on the Gaza strip Tuesday night, Israel has blocked a previously approved $15 million transfer from Qatar to Hamas terrorists.

"Following the recent incidents in the Gaza Strip, and with consultation with security officials, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to allow the transfer of Qatari money to the Gaza Strip tomorrow," an Israeli diplomatic official told The Times of Israel.

The money was expected to reach Hamas on Wednesday and is intended to fund Hamas' mission to destroy the Jewish State.

Hamas warned that Israel's decision to block the terror funds will result in an "explosion" in Gaza.

While Hamas blames "Israeli aggression" for the border clashes, the IDF places the blame on Hamas.

"The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for all acts of aggression originating from the Gaza Strip and emanating from it," the army said in a statement.
In retaliation Israeli Air Force jets strike multiple targets in the Gaza Strip, including the office of senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, and Hamas' military intelligence headquarters in Gaza City.