THOUSANDS of Palestinians have fled their homes as Israel barraged the northern Gaza Strip with tank fire and air strikes, killing a family of six in their house and heavily damaging other neighbourhoods in what it said was an operation to clear militant tunnels.
As international efforts at a ceasefire stepped up, Israel appeared to be looking to inflict intensified damage won the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel.
The Gaza violence increasingly spilled over into turmoil elsewhere.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians held their most widespread protests since 2017, with hundreds in at least nine towns burning tyres and throwing stones at Israeli troops.
Soldiers opening fire killed six, according to Palestinian health officials, while a seventh Palestinian was killed as he tried to stab an Israeli soldier. Within Israel, communal violence erupted for a fourth night. Jewish and Arab mobs clashed in the flashpoint town of Lod, even after additional security forces were deployed.
In Gaza, the death toll from fighting rose to 122, including 31 children and 20 women, with 900 wounded, according to the Health Ministry.
The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups have confirmed 20 deaths in their ranks, though Israel says that number is much higher.
Seven people have been killed in Israel, including a six-year-old boy and a soldier.
Israel called up 9000 reservists on Thursday to join its troops massed at the Gaza border, and an army spokesperson spoke of a possible ground assault into the densely populated territory, though he gave no timetable. But before dawn yesterday, tanks deployed on the border and warplanes carried out an intense barrage on the northern end of the Gaza Strip.
However, Hamas showed no signs of backing down. So far, it has fired some 1800 rockets towards Israel, some targeting the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, although more than a quarter of them have fallen short inside Gaza and most of the rest have been intercepted by missile defence systems. Still, the rockets have brought life in parts of southern Israel to a standstill and caused disruptions at airports.
The strikes came after Egyptian mediators rushed to Israel for ceasefire talks that showed no signs of progress. Egypt, Qatar and the UN were leading truce efforts.
An Egyptian intelligence official with knowledge of the talks said Israel rejected an Egyptian proposal for a year-long truce with Hamas and other Gaza militants, which would have started at midnight on Thursday had Israel agreed.
He said Hamas had accepted that proposal.
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