Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, said the escalation was retaliation for a secret Israeli operation inside Gaza unmasked Sunday, ending in a bloody exchange of fire.
Six Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One person was killed in Israel when a rocket hit a residential building in the southern city of Ashkelon, Israel's emergency response service, Magen David Adom, said.
The mayor of Ashkelon said the dead man was a Palestinian from the West Bank city of Hebron. He was the first person to die in Israel from a rocket strike from Gaza since the 2014 war.
Dozens of others have been injured, mostly from shrapnel.
Rocket fire continued into Tuesday afternoon, as red-alert sirens sounded along the Gaza periphery, warning of incoming fire. More than 100 rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome aerial defense system, while many others have landed in open fields. Some rockets have evaded interception, landing in cities like Ashkelon and Sderot.
By Tuesday, the Israeli military said it had carried out more than 100 strikes on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, including weapons storage and manufacturing sites, command and control centers, and other targets. It also targeted what the military called "strategic assets," including al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas-run news channel that Israel has long accused of spreading misinformation and inciting Palestinians to attack Israelis.
Egypt and the United Nations have been working since Monday afternoon to try to pull Israel and Gaza back from the brink of war, but so far with little success.
The latest round of hostilities began Sunday evening when Israeli special forces entered Gaza as part of what the IDF called "operational activity." Hamas' armed wing accused Israel of carrying out an assassination attempt.
In the ensuing exchange of fire, an Israeli officer and a Hamas military commander were killed, as well as six other Palestinians. Israel denied the operation was an assassination attempt, describing it instead as part of a "broad, continuous and dedicated" effort.
Since the beginning of large-scale protests along the Gaza border in late March, there have been multiple rounds of hostilities, often in sharp escalations. But these have been brief, usually ending within 24 hours with the intervention of international mediators, including the United Nations and Egypt.
This round has already surpassed other exchanges, with no clear end in sight.
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