Sources with Hamas, which controls the government in Gaza, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that more than 140 strikes had hit Gaza.
The al-Qassam Brigade said its operatives downed a military drone east of Gaza. An Israeli military spokeswoman told CNN that no IDF aircraft was shot down.
At least three Israelis were killed and four were wounded when a rocket struck an apartment building in the town of Kiryat Malakhi on Thursday, an Israeli police spokesman said.
Israeli military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich tweeted a photo that she said was a baby wounded from a rocket attack in Israel. The baby’s face is blurred, but the child appears to be spattered with blood.
The al-Qassam Brigade tweeted a screen shot from Hamas-run al Aqsa TV, showing the mangled body of a child. “Israel’s military kills Palestinian children in cold blood in #Gaza,” the tweet said.
Al-Aqsa TV quoted the health ministry as saying 19 people had been killed, among them six children and two “elderly.”
The channel said more than 180 people have been wounded since the Israeli strikes began this week in Gaza. Israel has reported several people wounded, including another three soldiers injured Thursday morning by rockets from Gaza.
The escalating violence is likely to further erode Israel’s fragile relationship with Egypt, which recalled its ambassador to Israel on Wednesday in protest over the ongoing strikes. It also delivered a formal protest to the Israeli government.
On Thursday, when asked by CNN’s Hala Gorani if treaties between Egypt and Israel are in danger, the chief of the Egyptian presidential cabinet said no.
“Not at all. Because we have declared several times, repeatedly, that we abide by our international commitments,” Mohamed Refa’a al-Tahtawi said. “But respecting a peace treaty does not mean to stay idle or indifferent to what is going on along our borders.
A spokesman for Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy said the Arab League will meet Saturday in emergency session to discuss the violence.
“Egypt is taking all diplomatic measures with all parties involved to reach some sort of immediate truce or cease fire,” Yaser Ali added.
A senior official in U.S. President Obama’s administration told CNN that the White House is asking Egypt and Turkey — two nations that have influence with Hamas — to urge the group to de-escalate the rocket attacks.
But a Hamas deputy foreign minister told CNN: “I am in touch with the Egyptians they are very angry and very upset because they feel that Israel put a knife in their back” by attacking sites in Gaza.
Egypt’s Prime Minister Hesham Kandil will travel on Friday morning to Gaza with a team of presidential advisers and ministers to meet with Palestinian officials.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon also will go to Egypt and Israel next week, because of the rising tensions between Israel and Hamas, a Western diplomat told CNN. The diplomat said the Secretary General has canceled a trip to Mozambique, Botswana, Seychelles and Mauritius to go to the Middle East.
– CNN