GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —

Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 10 people, including a senior militant, and wounding dozens, according to Palestinian officials. Israel said it was targeting the Islamic Jihad militant group in response to an "imminent threat" following the arrest of another senior militant in the occupied West Bank earlier this week.

Related video above: The toll of four wars in Gaza

Palestinian militants launched a barrage of rockets hours later as air raid sirens wailed in central and southern Israel, drawing the sides closer to all-out war. Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years at a staggering cost to the territory's 2 million Palestinian residents.

A blast was heard in Gaza City, where smoke poured out of the seventh floor of a tall building on Friday afternoon. Video released by the military showed strikes blowing up three guard towers with suspected militants in them.

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said his country has "zero tolerance" for attacks from Gaza but "no interest" in a broader battle.

The violence poses an early test for Lapid, who assumed the role of caretaker prime minister ahead of elections in November in which he hopes to keep the position. He has experience in diplomacy, having served as foreign minister in the outgoing government, but his security credentials are thin.

Hamas also faces a dilemma in deciding whether to join a new battle — barely a year after the last war caused widespread devastation. There has been almost no reconstruction since then, and the isolated coastal territory is mired in poverty, with unemployment hovering around 50%.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said a 5-year-old girl and a 23-year-old woman were among those killed and that another 55 people were wounded. It did not differentiate between civilians and militants. The Israeli military said early estimates were that around 15 fighters were killed.

Islamic Jihad said Taiseer al-Jabari, its commander for northern Gaza, was among those killed. He had succeeded another militant killed in an airstrike in 2019. Hundreds marched in a funeral procession for him and others who were killed, with many of the mourners waving Palestinian flags and Islamic Jihad banners as they called for revenge.

Israel's Kan broadcaster later showed footage of at least two rockets being intercepted as air raid sirens sounded. An explosion was heard in Tel Aviv. There was no immediate word on any casualties on the Israeli side.

A few hundred people gathered outside the morgue at Gaza City's main Shifa hospital. Some entered to identify loved ones, only to emerge in tears. One shouted: "May God take revenge against spies," referring to Palestinian informants who cooperate with Israel.

An Israeli military spokesman said it launched the strikes in response to an "imminent threat" from two militant squads armed with anti-tank missiles. The spokesman, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said al-Jabari was deliberately targeted and had been responsible for "multiple attacks" on Israel.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz meanwhile approved an order to call up 25,000 reserve soldiers if needed. And the military announced a "special situation" on the home front, with schools closed and limits placed on other activities in communities within 50 miles of the border.

Israel had closed roads around Gaza earlier this week and sent reinforcements to the border as it braced for a revenge attack after Monday's arrest of Bassam al-Saadi, an Islamic Jihad leader, in a military raid in the occupied West Bank. A teenage member of the group was killed in a gunbattle between the Israeli troops and Palestinian militants.

Israel and the Hamas fought four wars since the militant group seized power in the coastal strip from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. The most recent was in May 2021, and tensions again soared earlier this year following a wave of attacks inside Israel, near-daily military operations in the West Bank and tensions at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site.

Islamic Jihad leader Ziad al-Nakhalah, speaking to the al-Mayadeen TV network from Iran, said "the fighters of the Palestinian resistance have to stand together to confront this aggression." He said there would be "no red lines" and blamed the violence on Israel.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said "the Israeli enemy, who started the escalation against Gaza and committed a new crime, must pay the price and bear full responsibility for it."

Islamic Jihad is smaller than Hamas but largely shares its ideology. Both groups are opposed to Israel's existence and have carried out scores of deadly attacks over the years, including the firing of rockets into Israel. It's unclear how much control Hamas has over Islamic Jihad, and Israel holds Hamas responsible for all attacks emanating from Gaza.

Israel and Egypt have maintained a tight blockade over the territory since the Hamas takeover. Israel says the closure is needed to prevent Hamas from building up its military capabilities, while critics say the policy amounts to collective punishment.

Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of the Shifa hospital, the largest in Gaza, said hospitals faced shortages after Israel imposed a full closure on Gaza earlier this week. He said there were enough supplies and essential drugs to sustain hospitals for five days in normal times, but that with a new round of fighting underway, "they may run out at any moment."

Israel called off an expected fuel delivery for Gaza's sole power plant, which was expected to shut down early Saturday if the fuel did not enter the territory. Even when the plant is running at full capacity, Gazans still endure daily power outages that last several hours.

Earlier Friday, a couple of hundred Israelis protested near the Gaza Strip on Friday to demand the return of the remains of two Israeli soldiers held by Hamas.

The protesters were led by the family of Hadar Goldin, who along with Oron Shaul was killed in the 2014 Gaza war. Hamas is still holding their remains, as well as two Israeli civilians who strayed into Gaza and are believed to be mentally ill, hoping to exchange them for some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Israel says there can be no major moves toward lifting the blockade until the soldiers' remains and captive civilians are released. Israel and Hamas have held numerous rounds of Egyptian-mediated talks on a possible swap.

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Krauss reported from Ottawa, Ontario. Associated Press reporter Ariel Schalit in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, Israel, contributed to this report.

BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip —

Related video above: Hamas militants celebrate ceasefire in Gaza

It took Ramez al-Masri three years to rebuild his home after it was destroyed in a 2014 Israeli offensive. When war returned to the area last week, it took just a few seconds for the house to be flattened again in an Israeli airstrike.

The despondent al-Masri once again finds himself among the thousands of Gazans left homeless by another war between Israel and the territory's Islamic militant Hamas rulers. He and the 16 others who lived in the two-story structure are scattered at relatives' homes, uncertain how long they will remain displaced as they wait with hope for international aid to help them rebuild the home.

"My children are scattered — two there, three here, one there. Things are really very difficult," he said. "We live in death every day as long as there is an occupation," he said, referring to Israel's rule over Palestinians, including its blockade of Gaza.

The United Nations estimates that about 1,000 homes were destroyed in the 11-day war that ended last Friday. Lynn Hastings, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the region, said hundreds of additional housing units were damaged so badly they are likely uninhabitable.

The destruction is less extensive than in the 50-day war of 2014, in which entire neighborhoods were reduced to rubble and 141,000 homes were either wiped out or damaged.

But following that war, international donors quickly pledged $2.7 billion in reconstruction assistance for the battered enclave. It remains unclear this time around whether the international community, fatigued from the global COVID-19 crisis and years of unsuccessful Mideast diplomacy, will be ready to open its wallet again.

Related video: Biden: 'no shift' in commitment to Israel's security

It was 3 a.m. on Wednesday when the phone call from Israel came to a neighbor ordering everyone in the area to evacuate. "Leave your homes, we are going to bomb," al-Masri says they were told.

The neighborhood is home to members of al-Masri's extended family. At the time of the warning, he said no one knew which house might be targeted. But he could not believe that the airstrike hit the two-floor home where he lived with his eight children, his brother's family and their mother.

"If we knew someone was wanted, we would not have stayed here from the outset," he said. Al-Masri, who owns a small grocery store, said neither he nor his brother have anything to do with militant groups.

The airstrike turned his home into a crater. On Sunday, the massive hole was filled with murky water spewing from broken water and sewage lines.

Seven adjacent homes belonging to relatives were badly damaged. Their walls were blown up, exposing the colorful interior decorations of the living and bedrooms. The blast was so powerful that concrete support beams were weakened and the houses are likely beyond repair.

On Sunday, a mobile pump was deployed to suck the stinky water out as bulldozers worked to reopen streets. City workers were removing damaged power lines. But much of the rubble remained uncleared.

After the 2014 war, al-Masri bounced around between rental homes and "caravans" — small metal huts that dotted hard-hit areas of Gaza like shantytowns. He dreads the thought of returning to the temporary shelters.

"Life was disastrous in the caravans. We were living between two sheets of tin," he said.

He said he hopes the international community "will stand by us, try to help us so we can rebuild quickly."

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment on why the home had been targeted.

Throughout the fighting, it accused Hamas of using residential areas as cover for rocket launches and other militant activity. The army says its system of warnings and evacuation orders is meant to prevent civilians from being harmed.

During the recent fighting, Israel unleashed hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza at what it said were militant targets. Hamas and other armed groups fired more than 4,000 rockets toward Israeli cities, most of which were intercepted or landed in open areas.

The fighting began May 10, when Hamas militants in Gaza fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem. The barrage came after days of clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police at Al-Aqsa. Heavy-handed police tactics at the compound and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers had inflamed tensions.

The true costs of the war will not be known for some time. Palestinian health officials said 248 Palestinians, including 66 children and 39 women, were killed in the fighting.

Twelve people in Israel, including two children, also died in the fighting.

On Sunday morning, hundreds of municipal workers and volunteers started a one-week campaign to clear rubble from Gaza City's streets.

Outside a flattened high-rise building, workers loaded rubble into donkey carts and small pickup trucks. Next to a destroyed government building, children collected cables and whatever recyclable leftovers they could sell for a few shekels.

In Beit Hanoun, one of the homes that was struck last week belonged to Nader al-Masri, Ramez's cousin and a long-distance runner who participated in dozens of international competitions. Since he lost his house in the 2014 war, Nader, 41, has lived in the second of floor of a three-floor home belonging to relatives.

The third and the first floors sustained heavy hits. A room filled with medals and trophies that Nader collected through his 20-year career was damaged. Fortunately, he said, many of his mementos survived.

Nader al-Masri is familiar with loss. Beit Hanoun, situated just along the frontier with Israel, has frequently been the scene of heavy fighting, and his home has been damaged two previous times.

"I had over 150 trophies. In each of the previous wars, I lost one or two or three," he said. Some 20 glass awards have been shattered over the years. "Each war the number drops," he said, showing a medal from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

As a world-class runner from 1998 to 2018, Nader was one of Gaza's most famous residents, especially after Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza following Hamas' takeover of the territory in 2007.

The blockade often prevented him from traveling abroad to compete. In many cases, he arrived just in time for his races.

On Sunday, debris filled his apartment. The ceiling of his daughters' bedroom was cracked. The bright layers of paint had fallen off, exposing gloomy, dark plaster. School backpacks lay on the ground among shards and debris.

Nader, now a coach with the Palestinian Athletics Federation, moved his five children to their uncle's house.

"I'm an athlete and have nothing to do with politics," he said. "Things are difficult because we cannot build a home every day."

Related video above: U.S. looks to preserve Gaza truce, push peace talks

A Jewish man killed during an eruption of Mideast violence has given new life to an Arab woman in bitter times.

Yigal Yehoshua, 56, died May 17 after being pelted with rocks amid clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel's mixed city of Lod.

The ethnic violence was triggered by protests and clashes in Jerusalem that also ignited an 11-day Gaza War.

In Lod and other mixed cities inside Israel, groups of Arabs and Jews fought each other in the streets, torched cars and businesses, and savagely beat up anyone from the other side who crossed their path.

But after days and nights of war and ugliness, there was a rare moment of hope, when Randa Aweis, a 58-year-old mother of six, got one of Yehoshua's kidneys after a 10-year wait.

He was registered as an organ donor; the Jewish man and the Arab woman were medically a match.

"I could not believe it," she said in an interview Monday at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. "I'm telling you, I couldn't believe it."

"They saved me," she said. "People say he was a good man, that he didn't do any harm, so why was he murdered? ... That's forbidden. There must be peace between Jews and Arabs, real peace."

Israelis long accustomed to periodic unrest in Gaza and the occupied West Bank were shocked by the violence, which hit closer to home than at any point since the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising. At times, it seemed like the start of a civil war.

Israel's Arab citizens, who make up 20% of the population, said the violence was rooted in longstanding grievances. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, but face widespread discrimination. They also have close familial ties to the Palestinians and largely identify with their cause, leading many Jewish Israelis to view them with suspicion.

"I share in the sorrow of the family of the late Yigal Yehoshua who was murdered in a lynch carried out by Arab rioters in Lod," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said when the death was announced last week.

"We will settle accounts with whoever participated in this murder; nobody will escape punishment," he added.

Police have arrested several suspects in connection with the violence.

Aweis never met Yehoshua but she spoke to his widow on a tearful video call. She hopes to visit his family in person once she has recovered from the transplant.

"Yigal saved me, and as much as I say thank you to the family, to everyone, it's not enough."

GAZA, Gaza Strip —

Israel unleashed a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Thursday, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding several others. The latest strikes came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed back against U.S. pressure to wind down the offensive against Gaza's militant Hamas rulers, who have fired thousands of rockets at Israel.

Explosions shook Gaza City and orange flares lit up the night sky, with airstrikes also reported in the central town of Deir al-Balah and the southern town of Khan Younis. As the sun rose, residents surveyed the rubble from at least five family homes destroyed in Khan Younis. There were also heavy airstrikes on al-Saftawi Street, a commercial thoroughfare in Gaza City.

A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a briefing Tuesday that attacks on Hamas' extensive network of tunnels would be expanded to other parts of Gaza.

The fighting — the worst since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas — has ignited protests around the world and inspired Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories to call a general strike Tuesday. It was a rare collective action that spanned boundaries central to decades of failed peace efforts. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for their future state.

The Latest

The Israeli military said it struck at least four homes of Hamas commanders, targeting “military infrastructure,” as well as a weapons storage unit at the home of a Hamas fighter in Gaza City.

An Israeli airstrike smashed into the Khawaldi family’s two-story house in Khan Younis, destroying it. The 11 residents, who were sleeping in a separate area out of fear, were all wounded and hospitalized, said Shaker al-Khozondar, a neighbor.

Shrapnel hit his family home next door, killing Hoda al-Khozondar, his aunt, and wounding her daughter and two cousins, he said. Weam Fares, a spokesman for a nearby hospital, confirmed her death and said at least 10 people were wounded in strikes overnight.

Israeli airstrikes killed at least six people across the Gaza Strip early Wednesday. The military said it widened its strikes in the Palestinian territory’s south to blunt continuing rocket fire from Hamas, while a separate barrage also came from Lebanon.

For the third time since the war began, rockets were launched toward Israel from the north. The Israeli military said one landed in an open area, two landed in the sea, and one was intercepted by aerial defenses. Lebanese security officials said the latest rockets were launched from the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Qlayleh, adding that four fell inside Lebanese territory. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

In southern Gaza, meanwhile, residents surveyed the piles of bricks, concrete and other debris that had once been the home of 40 members of al-Astal family. They said a warning missile struck the building in the town of Khan Younis five minutes before the airstrike, allowing everyone to escape.

The Death Toll

At least 227 Palestinians have been killed, including 64 children and 38 women, with 1,620 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not break the numbers down into fighters and civilians. Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 130. Some 58,000 Palestinians have fled their homes.

Twelve people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy, a 16-year-old girl and a soldier, have been killed.

Four Palestinians, including a local journalist, were killed and 10 others wounded in a series of raids launched by Israeli warplanes on different areas of Gaza on Wednesday, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The journalist, Yusef Abu Hussein, was a broadcaster with Gaza radio station Al Aqsa Radio. He was killed in an Israeli strike targeting a house near the Sheikh Radwan cemetery, north of Gaza City, the WAFA report said.

The Damage

Israeli attacks have damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said. Nearly half of all essential drugs have run out.

The Gaza Health Ministry said it had salvaged coronavirus vaccines after shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike damaged the territory's only testing facility, which also administered hundreds of vaccines. The medical operation was relocated to another clinic.

The WHO said the bombing of key roads, including those leading to the main Shifa Hospital, has hindered ambulances and supply vehicles in Gaza, which was already struggling to cope with a coronavirus outbreak.

Among the buildings leveled by Israeli airstrikes was one housing The Associated Press' Gaza office and those of other media outlets.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating in the building. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that Israel had given the U.S. information about the bombing, without elaborating.

Diplomatic Negotiations

Netanyahu has pushed back against calls from the Biden administration to wrap up the operation that has left hundreds dead. It marks the first public rift between the two close allies since the fighting began last week and could complicate international efforts to reach a cease-fire. His pushback also poses a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israel relationship.

After visiting military headquarters, Netanyahu said Wednesday he appreciated “the support of the American president,” but that Israel would push ahead to return “calm and security” to its citizens. He said he was “determined to continue this operation until its aim is met.”

U.S. President Joe Biden had earlier told Netanyahu that he expected “a significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire,” the White House said.

Biden had previously avoided pressing Israel more directly and publicly for a cease-fire with Gaza’s Hamas militant rulers. But pressure has been building for Biden to intervene more forcefully as other diplomatic efforts gather strength.

Egyptian negotiators have also been working to halt the fighting, and an Egyptian diplomat said top officials were waiting for Israel’s response to a cease-fire offer. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Moussa Abu Marzouk, a top Hamas official, told the Lebanese Mayadeen TV that he expected a cease-fire in a day or two.

CNN contributed to this report.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israel has approved a cease-fire plan to halt an 11-day military operation in the Gaza Strip, according to multiple reports. President Joe Biden is expected to make remarks about the agreement at 5:45 p.m. ET.

The Associated Press reports Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netnayaho’s office announced the cease-fire Thursday, saying his security cabinet unilaterally approved a proposal mediated by Egypt.

A Hamas official told Reuters that the ceasefire would be “mutual and simultaneous,” though the organization has not yet publicly commented on the reported cease-fire.

A statement from Netnayaho’s office said the sides are still determining when the truce will take effect. But local outlets have reported it would go into effect at 2 a.m. local time.

The cease-fire decision came amid global pressure on both Israel and Hamas to quell the violence that has erupted in Gaza in the past week.

Reports indicated earlier on Thursday that the two sides could agree to a ceasefire soon. According to reports from CNN and the Wall Street Journal, a cease-fire in Gaza was "imminent" and could occur as soon as this week.

At a press briefing on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called the reports "encouraging" and added that the administration is continuing to implement its policy in the region "quietly and through diplomatic channels."

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that Egyptian officials have made headway in negotiations with Hamas leadership. That report came hours after President Joe Biden, in a call Wednesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, called for "significant de-escalation" in the region and urged him to find a "path to a cease-fire."

Following that call, Netanyahu released a statement saying that he remains committed to the military operation. However, Biden administration officials told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that they believe "a cease-fire could come this week, barring any unforeseen clashes that might topple the fragile discussions."

During Thursday's briefing, Psaki declined to disclose if Israel had met Biden's calls for "significant de-escalation."

"We're not going to give a day-by-day grade here," she said adding that Hamas and Israel are "to a point where they should be in a position to end this conflict."

Prior to Wednesday's call, the Biden White House had primarily avoided directly appealing to Israel to reduce violence. Earlier this week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki maintained that while the U.S. is committed to de-escalating violence in the region, she added that the Biden administration believed that Israel had a right to defend itself.

According to CNN, more than 220 Palestinians, including more than 60 children, had been killed in the 10 days of violence. CNN added that during that time span, 12 Israelis had been killed, including two children.

While Hamas, a Palestinian fundamentalist military operation, has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, Israeli defense systems have shot down the majority of those missiles.

President Joe Biden's efforts to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu to halt military strikes against Hamas in Gaza are plunging the two leaders into a difficult early test of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

The two have had other moments of tension over the years, and their current differences over the war in Gaza create a challenge that Biden was trying mightily to avoid.

Biden told Netanyahu in a telephone call Wednesday that he expected "significant de-escalation" of the fighting by day's end, according to the White House. But the prime minister came right back with a public declaration that he was "determined to continue" the Gaza operation "until its objective is achieved."

Netanyahu did allow that he "greatly appreciates the support of the American president," but said nonetheless that Israel would push ahead.

This is not where Biden had hoped to expend his time and energy.

Early in Biden's term, foreign policy has taken a back seat. The president has tried to avoid getting bogged down in an interminable effort to establish an elusive Mideast peace that many of his White House predecessors have dedicated precious time to without much success.

This is not the first time Biden and Netanyahu have been publicly at odds.

As vice president, Biden kept Netanyahu waiting for a dinner meeting after the Israeli leader embarrassed President Barack Obama by approving the construction of 1,600 new apartments in disputed east Jerusalem in the middle of Biden's 2010 visit to Israel.

Netanyahu sought to patch up hurt feelings at the dinner. But after the meal, Biden admonished the prime minister in a statement, saying the move undermined a U.S. effort to persuade the Palestinians to resume peace talks.

Later, Obama and Netanyahu's relationship cratered as White House aides questioned the Israeli's willingness to find accommodations with Palestinians and Sunni Arab countries to build a lasting peace in the region. Netanyahu, for his part, was furious about White House efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran.

Amid the tension between Obama and Netanyahu, Biden went out of his way during a 2014 speech before the Jewish Federations of North America to say that he and Netanyahu were "still buddies," albeit with a somewhat complicated relationship. Biden noted that he had once inscribed a photo for Netanyahu with "Bibi I don't agree with a damn thing you say but I love you.'"

In late 2019, during a question and answer session with voters on the campaign trail, Biden called Netanyahu "counterproductive" and an "extreme right" leader. But he also accused Palestinian leaders of "fomenting" the conflict and "baiting everyone who is Jewish." And he suggested that some on the U.S. political left give the Palestinian Authority "a pass" when criticizing Israeli leadership.

Netanyahu had a notably better relationship with President Donald Trump, whom he praised for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and brokering a normalization of relations between Israel and Gulf neighbors Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates as well as Morocco and Sudan.

Video: Israel and Hamas accused of war crimes in Gaza

Biden's call on Netanyahu to de-escalate the fighting came as political and international pressure mounted on the U.S. president to intervene more forcefully to push for an end to the hostilities. Biden, until Wednesday, had avoided pressing Israel more directly and publicly for a cease-fire, or conveying that level of urgency for ending Israeli airstrikes targeting Hamas in the thickly populated Gaza Strip.

His administration has relied instead on what officials described as "quiet, intensive" diplomacy, including quashing a U.N. Security Council statement that would have addressed a cease-fire. The administration's handling opened a divide between Biden and some Democratic lawmakers, dozens of whom have called for a cease-fire.

Egypt and some others have worked without success to broker a halt to fighting, while Hamas officials indicated publicly they would keep up their rocket barrages into Israel as long as Israel continued airstrikes.

Netanyahu, in his statement, made clear he had no plans to immediately wind down Israeli strikes targeting Hamas leaders and supply tunnels in Gaza, a 25-mile by 6-mile strip of territory that is home to more than 2 million people.

"With every passing day we are striking at more of the terrorist organizations' capabilities, targeting more senior commanders, toppling more terrorist buildings and hitting more weaponry stockpiles," Netanyahu said.

The White House did not respond directly to Netanyahu's statement but said top Biden advisers continued to be in "hour by hour" contact with their Israeli counterparts.

The State Department said Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Wednesday with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and "reinforced the message that the U.S. expects to see de-escalation on the path to a ceasefire."

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu could be further complicated for the president by a shifting tide on Israel among some congressional Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has called Israel an "apartheid state," and Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota has labeled Israeli airstrikes "terrorism." Biden, during a visit to a Michigan on Tuesday, had an animated conversation about the ongoing fighting with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has family in the West Bank. Tlaib told Biden that his administration must do far more to protect Palestinian lives, according to a person familiar with their conversation.

Soon after Netanyahu announced he planned to continue operations, Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin introduced a resolution opposing the sale of $735 million in military weaponry to Israel that's already been approved by the Biden administration. Separately, 138 House Democrats on Wednesday signed a letter, organized by Rep. David Price of North Carolina, urging Biden and his administration to "boldly lead and take decisive action to end the violence."

The fighting, the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence since 2014, has killed at least 219 Palestinians and 12 people in Israel.

Top Biden administration officials have stressed to the Israelis in recent days that time is not on their side as international objections mount to their operations and domestic pressure builds on Biden, according to a person familiar with the ongoing discussions,

—-

Associated Press Writers Alexandra Jaffe in New London, Connecticut, and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed reporting.

GAZA, Gaza Strip —

Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on what it said were militant targets in Gaza, leveling a six-story building in downtown Gaza City, and Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel early Tuesday as the war entered a second week.

Explosions from the airstrikes echoed through the pre-dawn darkness in Gaza City, sending flashes of orange across the night sky. The strikes toppled the Kahil building, which contains libraries and educational centers belonging to the Islamic University. Clouds of dust hung over the site, which had been reduced to piles of concrete rubble and tangled power lines.

There were no immediate reports of casualties from the overnight strikes.

Heavy fighting broke out May 10 when Gaza's militant Hamas rulers fired long-range rockets toward Jerusalem in support of Palestinian protests there against Israel’s heavy-handed policing of the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, a flashpoint holy site sacred to Jews and Muslims, and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers.

The Israeli military said Tuesday it fired more than 100 munitions at 65 militant targets, including rocket launchers, a group of fighters and the homes of Hamas commanders that the army said were being used for military purposes. It said more than 60 fighter jets took part in the operation.

The military said Palestinian militants fired 90 rockets, 20 of which fell short into Gaza. Israel says its missile defenses have a 90% interception rate.

At least 212 Palestinians have been killed in the week of heavy airstrikes, including 61 children and 36 women, with more than 1,400 people wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Ten people in Israel, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier, have been killed in the ongoing rocket attacks launched from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel.

Israel says it has inflicted heavy damage on Hamas' military infrastructure, including a vast network of militant tunnels it refers to as the “Metro.”

The strikes have brought down several buildings and caused widespread damage in the narrow coastal territory, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians and has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

Israeli airstrikes and shelling have damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and entirely destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said in a new report. Nearly half of all essential drugs in the territory have run out.

It said the bombing of key roads, including those leading to the main Shifa Hospital, has hindered the movement of ambulances and supply vehicles. Over 41,000 displaced Palestinians have sought refuge in U.N. schools in Gaza, which was already struggling to cope with a coronavirus outbreak.

Israel has vowed to press on with its operations, and the United States signaled it would not pressure the two sides for a cease-fire even as President Joe Biden said he supported one.

“We will continue to operate as long as necessary in order to return calm and security to all Israeli citizens,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after meeting with top security officials on Monday .

Protests were expected across the region Tuesday in response to a call by Palestinian citizens of Israel for a general strike. The protest has the support of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party.

The Biden administration has declined so far to publicly criticize Israel’s part in the fighting or send a top-level envoy to the region. On Monday, the United States again blocked a proposed U.N. Security Council statement calling for an end to “the crisis related to Gaza” and the protection of civilians, especially children.

Since the fighting began, the Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes it says are targeting Hamas’ militant infrastructure. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 3,400 rockets into Israel.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad say at least 20 of their fighters have been killed, while Israel says the number is at least 160 and has released the names of and photos of more than two dozen militant commanders it says were “eliminated.” The Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas, does not give a breakdown of how many casualties were militants or civilians.

Israel’s airstrikes have leveled a number of Gaza City’s tallest buildings, which Israel alleges contained Hamas military infrastructure. Among them was the building housing The Associated Press Gaza office and those of other media outlets.

Netanyahu alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building and said any evidence would be shared through intelligence channels. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he hasn’t yet seen any evidence supporting Israel’s claim.

AP President Gary Pruitt called for an independent investigation into the attack.

“As we have said, we have no indication of a Hamas presence in the building, nor were we warned of any such possible presence before the airstrike,” he said in a statement. “This is something we check as best we can. We do not know what the Israeli evidence shows, and we want to know.”

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Krauss reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed.

President Joe Biden expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, but stopped short of demanding an immediate stop to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages that have killed more than 200 people, most of them Palestinian.

Biden's carefully worded statement, in a White House readout of his second known call to Netanyahu in three days as the attacks pounded on, came with the administration under pressure to respond more forcefully despite its determination to wrench the U.S. foreign policy focus away from Middle East conflicts.

Biden's comments on a cease-fire were open-ended, and similar to previous administration statements of support in principle for a cease-fire. That's in contrast to demands from dozens of Democratic lawmakers and others for an immediate halt by both sides. But the readout of the call to the Israeli leader showed increased White House concern about the air and rocket attacks —including Israeli airstrikes aimed at weakening Hamas — while sticking to forceful support for Israel.

The U.S. leader “encouraged Israel to make every effort to ensure the protection of innocent civilians,” the White House said in its readout.

An administration official familiar with the call said the decision to express support and not explicitly demand a cease-fire was intentional. While Biden and top aides are concerned about the mounting bloodshed and loss of innocent life, the decision not to demand an immediate halt to hostilities reflects White House determination to support Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private deliberations.

Netanyahu told Israeli security officials late Monday that Israel would “continue to strike terror targets” in Gaza “as long as necessary in order to return calm and security to all Israeli citizens.”

As the worst Israeli-Palestinian fighting since 2014 raged, the Biden administration has limited its public criticisms to Hamas and has declined to send a top-level envoy to the region. It also had declined to press Israel publicly and directly to wind down its latest military operation in the Gaza Strip, a six-mile by 25-mile territory that is home to more than 2 million people. Cease-fire mediation by Egypt and others has shown no sign of progress.

Separately, the United States, Israel’s top ally, blocked for a third time Monday what would have been a unanimous statement by the 15-nation U.N. Security Council expressing “grave concern” over the intensifying Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the loss of civilian lives. The final U.S. rejection killed the Security Council statement, at least for now.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki and national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States was focusing instead on “quiet, intensive diplomacy.”

Biden has been determined to wrench U.S. foreign policy away from Middle East and Central Asia conflicts, including withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan and ending support for a Saudi-led war in Yemen, to focus on other policy priorities. Internationally for the U.S., that means confronting climate change and dealing with the rise of China, among other objectives.

That shift carries risks, including weathering flaring violence as the United States steps back from hotspots.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Denmark on the first stop of an unrelated tour of Nordic countries, said Monday the United States was ready to spring in to help if Israel and Hamas signal interest in ending hostilities — but that the U.S. wasn’t demanding that they do so.

“Ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a cease-fire,” Blinken said. He described U.S. contacts to support an end to the fighting, including the calls he was making midair between his Nordic stops.

Blinken defended the U.S. handling of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict as America works to push for climate-accord deals, withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and turn U.S. attention to what Biden sees as the nation’s most pressing foreign policy priorities.

It’s “a big world and we do have responsibilities," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday joined dozens of Democratic lawmakers — and one Republican, and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders — in calling for the cease-fire by both sides. A prominent Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee chairman, pressed the U.S. over the weekend to get more involved.

Progressive Democrats have been more outspoken in demanding pressure on Israel — and Republicans and conservative Democrats comparatively quiet, for a politically fraught U.S. issue like support for Israel — as the death toll has mounted.

Rep. Cori Bush, a Missouri Democrat, linked Palestinian issues to those of Black Americans.

“We oppose our money going to fund militarized policing, occupation, and systems of violent oppression and trauma,” Bush tweeted.

But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, took the Senate floor on Monday to assail lawmakers for including Israel in their demands for a cease-fire.

“To say that both sides, both sides need to de-escalate downplays the responsibility terrorists have for initiating the conflict in the first place and suggests Israelis are not entitled to defend themselves against ongoing rocket barrages,” McConnell said.

In a shot at Democrats, McConnell said, “The United States needs to stand foursquare behind our ally, and President Biden must remain strong against the growing voices within his own party that create false equivalence between terrorist aggressors and a responsible state defending itself.”

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., led 19 Republican senators releasing a resolution supporting Israel's side of the fighting. They plan to try to introduce the legislation next week.

Blinken also said Monday he had asked Israel for any evidence for its claim that Hamas was operating in a Gaza office building housing The Associated Press and Al Jazeera news bureaus that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike over the weekend. But he said that he personally had “not seen any information provided.”

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Knickmeyer reported from Oklahoma City, Lee from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Lederer from New York. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro, Alan Fram, Aamer Madhani, Padmananda Rama and Joshua Boak in Washington contributed.

GAZA STRIP —

Related video above: Middle East on the brink?

Just weeks ago, the Gaza Strip's feeble health system was struggling with a runaway surge of coronavirus cases. Authorities cleared out hospital operating rooms, suspended nonessential care and redeployed doctors to patients having difficulty breathing.

Then, the bombs began to fall.

This week's violence between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers has killed 103 Palestinians, including 27 children, and wounded 530 people in the impoverished territory. Israeli airstrikes have pounded apartments, blown up cars and toppled buildings.

Doctors across the crowded coastal enclave are now reallocating intensive care unit beds and scrambling to keep up with a very different health crisis: treating blast and shrapnel wounds, bandaging cuts and performing amputations.

Distraught relatives didn't wait for ambulances, rushing the wounded by car or on foot to Shifa Hospital, the territory's largest. Exhausted doctors hurried from patient to patient, frantically bandaging shrapnel wounds to stop the bleeding. Others gathered at the hospital morgue, waiting with stretchers to remove the bodies for burial.

At the Indonesia Hospital in the northern town of Jabaliya, the clinic overflowed after bombs fell nearby. Blood was everywhere, with victims lying on the floors of hallways. Relatives crowded the ER, crying out for loved ones and cursing Israel.

"Before the military attacks, we had major shortages and could barely manage with the second (virus) wave," said Gaza Health Ministry official Abdelatif al-Hajj by phone as bombs thundered in the background. "Now casualties are coming from all directions, really critical casualties. I fear a total collapse."

Gutted by years of conflict, the impoverished health care system in the territory of more than 2 million people has always been vulnerable. Bitter division between Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and a nearly 14-year blockade imposed by Israel with Egypt's help also has strangled the infrastructure. There are shortages of equipment and supplies such as blood bags, surgical lamps, anesthesia and antibiotics. Personal protection gear, breathing machines and oxygen tanks remain even scarcer.

Last month, Gaza's daily coronavirus cases and deaths hit record highs, fueled by the spread of a variant that first appeared in Britain, relaxation of movement restrictions during Ramadan, and deepening public apathy and intransigence.

In the bomb-scarred territory where the unemployment rate is 50%, the need for personal survival often trumps the pleas of public health experts. While virus testing remains limited, the outbreak has infected more than 105,700 people, according to health authorities, and killed 976.

As cases climbed last year, stirring fears of a health care catastrophe, authorities set aside clinics just for COVID-19 patients. But that changed as airstrikes pummeled the territory.

Nurses at the European Hospital in the town of Khan Younis, frantically needing room for the wounded, moved dozens of virus patients in the middle of the night to a different building, said hospital director Yousef al-Akkad. Its surgeons and specialists, who had deployed elsewhere for the virus, rushed back to treat head injuries, fractures and abdominal wounds.

If the conflict intensifies, the hospital won't be able to care for the virus patients, al-Akkad said.

"We have only 15 intensive care beds, and all I can do is pray," he said, adding that because the hospital lacks surgical supplies and expertise, he's already arranged to send one child to Egypt for reconstructive shoulder surgery. "I pray these airstrikes will stop soon."

At Shifa, authorities also moved the wounded into its 30 beds that had been set aside for virus patients. Thursday night was the quietest this week for the ICU, as bombs had largely fallen elsewhere in Gaza. Patients with broken bones and other wounds lay amid the din of beeping monitors, intercoms and occasional shouts by doctors. A few relatives huddled around them, recounting the chaotic barrage.

"About 12 people down in one airstrike. It was 6 p.m. in the street. Some were killed, including my two cousins and young sister. It's like this every day," said 22-year-old Atallah al-Masri, sitting beside his wounded brother, Ghassan.

Hospital director Mohammed Abu Selmia lamented the latest series of blows to Gaza's health system.

"The Gaza Strip is under siege for 14 years, and the health sector is exhausted. Then comes the coronavirus pandemic," he said, adding that most of the equipment is as old as the blockade and can't be sent out for repairs.

Now, his teams already strained by virus cases are treating bombing victims, more than half of whom are critical cases needing surgery.

"They work relentlessly," he added

To make matters worse, Israeli airstrikes hit two health clinics north of Gaza City on Tuesday. The strikes wreaked havoc on Hala al-Shawa Health Center, forcing employees to evacuate, and damaged the Indonesian Hospital, according to the World Health Organization. Israel, already under pressure from an International Criminal court investigation into possible war crimes during the 2014 war, reiterated this week that it warns people living in targeted areas to flee. The airstrikes nonetheless have killed civilians and inflicted damage on Gaza's infrastructure.

The violence also has closed a few dozen health centers conducting coronavirus tests, said Sacha Bootsma, director of WHO's Gaza office. This week, authorities conducted some 300 tests a day, compared with 3,000 before the fighting began.

The U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, ordered staff to stay home from its 22 clinics for their safety. Those now-closed centers had also administered coronavirus vaccines, a precious resource in a place that waited months to receive a limited shipment from the U.N.-backed COVAX program. Those doses will expire in just a few weeks and get thrown away, with "huge implications for authorities' ability to mobilize additional vaccines in the future," Bootsma said.

For the newly wounded, however, the virus remains an afterthought.

The last thing that Mohammad Nassar remembers before an airstrike hit was walking home with a friend on a street. When he came to, he said, "we found ourselves lying on the ground."

Now the 31-year-old is hooked up to a tangle of tubes and monitors in the Shifa Hospital surgical ward, with a broken right arm and a shrapnel wound in his stomach.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —

Turmoil from the battle between Israel and Hamas spilled over into the West Bank on Friday, sparking the most widespread Palestinian protests in years as hundreds of young demonstrators in multiple towns clashed with Israeli troops, who shot and killed at least 11 people.

Video above: Palestinians in Gaza seek shelter in UN schools

Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued into early Saturday, when an airstrike on a house in Gaza City killed at least seven Palestinians — the highest number of fatalities in a single hit. That strike came a day after a furious overnight barrage of tank fire and airstrikes that wreaked destruction in some towns, killed a family of six in their house and sent thousands fleeing their homes.

The Israeli military said the operation involved 160 warplanes dropping some 80 tons of explosives over the course of 40 minutes and succeeded in destroying a network of tunnels used by Hamas to elude airstrikes and surveillance.

Israel appeared determined to inflict as much damage as possible on Gaza's Hamas rulers before international efforts for a cease-fire accelerated. Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes. In Gaza, at least 126 people have been killed, including 31 children and 20 women; in Israel, seven people have been killed, including a 6-year-old boy and a soldier.

Houda Ouda said she and her extended family ran frantically into their home in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, seeking safety as the earth shook in the darkness.

"We even did not dare to look from the window to know what is being hit," she said. When daylight came, she saw the destruction: streets cratered, buildings crushed or with facades blown off, an olive tree burned bare, dust covering everything.

The latest airstrike targeted a three-story house on the edge of a refugee camp. Said Alghoul, who lives nearby, said Israeli warplanes dropped at least three bombs on the home without warning residents in advance.

"I could not endure and ran back to my home," he said. Rescuers called a bulldozer to dig through the rubble for survivors or bodies.

Shortly afterward, Hamas said it fired a salvo of rockets at southern Israel in response to the airstrike.

The conflict, which was sparked by tensions in Jerusalem during the past month, has reverberated widely. Israeli cities with mixed Arab and Jewish populations have seen daily violence, with mobs from each community clashing and trashing each other's property. New clashes broke out Friday in the coastal city of Acre.

In the occupied West Bank, on the outskirts of Ramallah, Nablus and other towns and cities, hundreds of Palestinians protested against the Gaza campaign and Israeli actions in Jerusalem. Waving Palestinian flags, they trucked in tires that they set up in burning barricades and hurled stones at Israeli soldiers. At least 10 protesters were shot and killed by soldiers. An 11th Palestinian was killed when he tried to stab a soldier at a military position.

In east Jerusalem, online video showed young Jewish nationalists firing pistols as they traded volleys of stone with Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, which became a flashpoint for tensions over attempts by settlers to forcibly evict a number of Palestinian families from their homes.

On Israel's northern border, troops opened fire when a group of Lebanese and Palestinian protesters on the other side cut through the border fence and briefly crossed. One Lebanese was killed. Three rockets were fired toward Israel from neighboring Syria, but they either landed in Syrian territory or in empty areas, Israeli media said. It was not immediately known who fired them.

The spiraling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian "intifada," or uprising, at a time when the peace process has been virtually nonexistent for years. The tensions began in east Jerusalem earlier this month, with Palestinian protests against the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and Israeli police measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque, a frequent flashpoint located on a mount in the Old City revered by Muslims and Jews.

Hamas fired rockets toward Jerusalem late Monday, in an apparent attempt to present itself as the champion of the protesters. In the conflict that spiraled from there, Israel says it wants to inflict as much damage as it can on Hamas' military infrastructure in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would "pay a very heavy price" for its rocket attacks. Israel called up 9,000 reservists Thursday to join its troops massed at the Gaza border.

An Egyptian intelligence official said Israel had turned down an Egyptian proposal for a one-year cease-fire that Hamas had accepted. The official, who was close to Egypt's talks with both sides, spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal negotiations.

On Friday, the U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel-Palestinian affairs, Hady Amr, arrived in Israel as part of an attempt by Washington to de-escalate the conflict.

U.S. President Joe Biden gave a show of support to Netanyahu in a call a day earlier, saying "there has not been a significant overreaction" in Israel's response to Hamas rockets. He said the aim is to get a "significant reduction in attacks, particularly rocket attacks."

Hamas has fired some 2,000 rockets toward Israel since Monday, according to the Israeli military. Most have been intercepted by anti-missile defenses, but they have brought life to a standstill in southern Israeli cities, caused disruptions at airports and have set off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Rafat Tanani, his pregnant wife and four children, ages 7 and under, were killed after an Israeli warplane reduced their four-story apartment building to rubble in the neighboring town of Beit Lahia, residents said. Four strikes hit the building, Rafat's brother Fadi said. The building's owner and his wife also were killed.

"It was a massacre," said Sadallah Tanani, another relative. "My feelings are indescribable."

When the sun rose Friday, residents streamed out of the area in pickup trucks, on donkeys and on foot, taking pillows, blankets, pots and pans and bread. Thousands took shelter inside 16 schools run by the United Nations relief agency UNWRA, agency spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said.

Mohammed Ghabayen, who took refuge in a school with his family, said his children had eaten nothing since the day before, and they had no mattresses to sleep on. "And this is in the shadow of the coronavirus crisis," he said. "We don't know whether to take precautions for the coronavirus or the rockets or what to do exactly."

Israeli military officials cheered the operation as a successful blow against the tunnel network. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said 160 warplanes operated in a "synchronized manner" for about 40 minutes as part of the operation.

He said the military aims to minimize collateral damage in striking military targets. But measures the military takes in other strikes, such as warning shots to get civilians to leave, were not "feasible this time."

Military correspondents in Israeli media said the military believed dozens of militants were killed inside the tunnels. The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, but the Israeli military said the real number is far higher.

"We turned the tunnels which they thought were death traps for our soldiers into traps for them." Reserve Air Force Col. Koby Regev said on Israeli television.

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Keath reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Isabel DeBre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Samy Magdy in Cairo also contributed to this report.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip —

Israel on Wednesday pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 10 senior Hamas military figures and toppling a pair of high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in airstrikes. The Islamic militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities.

In just three days, this latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has already begun to resemble — and even exceed — a devastating 50-day war in 2014. Like in that previous war, neither side appears to have an exit strategy.

But there are key differences. The fighting has triggered the worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. And looming in the background is an international war crimes investigation.

Israel carried out an intense barrage of airstrikes just after sunrise, striking dozens of targets in several minutes that set off bone-rattling explosions across Gaza. Airstrikes continued throughout the day, filling the sky with pillars of smoke.

At nightfall, the streets of Gaza City resembled a ghost town as people huddled indoors on the final night of Islam's holiest month of Ramadan. The evening, followed by the Eid al-Fitr holiday, is usually a time of vibrant night life, shopping and crowded restaurants.

"There is nowhere to run. There is nowhere to hide," said Zeyad Khattab, a 44-year-old pharmacist who fled with a dozen other relatives to a family home in central Gaza after bombs pounded his apartment building in Gaza City. "That terror is impossible to describe."

Gaza militants continued to bombard Israel with nonstop rocket fire throughout the day and into early Thursday. The attacks brought life to a standstill in southern communities near Gaza, but also reached as far north as the Tel Aviv area, about 45 miles to the north, for a second straight day.

The military said sirens also wailed in northern Israel's Emek area, or Jezreel Valley, the farthest the effects of Gaza rockets have reached since 2014.

"We're coping, sitting at home, hoping it will be OK," said Motti Haim, a resident of the central town of Beer Yaakov and father of two children. "It's not simple running to the shelter. It's not easy with the kids."

Gaza's Health Ministry said the death toll rose to 69 Palestinians, including 16 children and six women. Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of seven militants, while Hamas acknowledged that a top commander and several other members were killed.

Rescuers pulled the bodies of a man and his wife from the debris of their home that was hit by rockets in the latest Israeli airstrikes early Thursday, relatives said.

A total of seven people have been killed in Israel, including four people who died on Wednesday. Among them were a soldier killed by an anti-tank missile and a 6-year-old child hit in a rocket attack.

The Israeli military claims the number of militants killed so far is much higher than Hamas has acknowledged.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said at least 14 militants were killed Wednesday — including 10 members of the "top management of Hamas" and four weapons experts. Altogether, he claimed some 30 militants have been killed since the fighting began.

More raids conducted early Thursday were aimed at several "strategically significant" facilities for Hamas, including a bank and a compound for a naval squad, the military said.

Video: Escalating violence engulfs Israel and Gaza

While United Nations and Egyptian officials have said that cease-fire efforts are underway, there were no signs of progress. Israeli television's Channel 12 reported late Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Security Cabinet authorized a widening of the offensive.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the "indiscriminate launching of rockets" from civilian areas in Gaza toward Israeli population centers, but he also urged Israel to show "maximum restraint." U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called Netanyahu to support Israel's right to defend itself and said he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to try to calm tensions.

The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters who threw chairs and stones at them.

Hamas, claiming to be defending Jerusalem, launched a barrage of rockets at the city late Monday, setting off days of fighting.

The Israeli military says militants have fired about 1,500 rockets in just three days. That is roughly one-third the number fired during the entire 2014 war.

Israel, meanwhile, has struck over 350 targets in Gaza, a tiny territory where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007. Two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion.

In tactics echoing past wars, Israel has begun to target senior members of Hamas' military wing. It also has flattened three high-rise buildings in a tactic that has drawn international scrutiny in the past.

Israel says the buildings all housed Hamas operations centers, but they also included residential apartments and businesses. In all cases, Israel fired warning shots, allowing people to flee, and there were no reports of casualties.

The fighting has set off violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, in scenes unseen since 2000. Netanyahu warned that he was prepared to use an "iron fist if necessary" to calm the violence.

But ugly clashes erupted across the country late Wednesday. Jewish and Arab mobs battled in the central city of Lod, the epicenter of the troubles, despite a state of emergency and nighttime curfew. In nearby Bat Yam, a mob of Jewish nationalists attacked an Arab motorist, dragged him from his car and beat him until he was motionless.

In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it thwarted a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two people. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the suspected gunman was killed. No details were immediately available.

Still unclear is how the fighting in Gaza will affect Netanyahu's political future. He failed to form a government coalition after inconclusive parliamentary elections in March, and now his political rivals have three weeks to try to form one.

His rivals have courted a small Islamist Arab party. But the longer the fighting lasts, the more it could hamper their attempts at forming a coalition. It could also boost Netanyahu if another election is held, since security is his strong suit with the public.

Video: Biden says Israel has right to defend itself

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.

The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas. In a brief statement, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had noted "with great concern" the escalation of violence and "the possible commission of crimes."

The ICC is looking into Israeli actions in past wars in Gaza. Israel is not a member of the court, does not recognize the ICC's jurisdiction and rejects the accusations. But in theory, the ICC could issue warrants and try to arrest Israeli suspects while they are traveling overseas.

Conricus, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces respect international laws on armed conflict and do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group fires rockets from residential areas.

Emanuel Gross, a professor emeritus the University of Haifa law school, said Israel should "take into consideration the concerns of the ICC." But he said he believes the military is on solid legal ground while rockets are striking Israeli cities.

"That's the real meaning of self defense," he said. "If you are attacked by a terrorist group, you defend yourself."

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Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.