The Israeli Air Force struck some 70 targets in the Gaza Strip in the past hour, the IDF Spokesman's Office said shortly before 10 p.m. Thursday. Among the targets, the IDF statement said, were underground medium-range rocket launching pads. The most recent blitz of air strikes brought the total number to well over 300.
Palestinians have fired over 275 rockets from Gaza into the South since the IDF launched its operation. Two rockets triggered an air raid siren in Tel Aviv, marking the first time that a real siren was sounded in Tel Aviv since the Gulf War in the early 1990s.
The goal of the IDF operation, the statement added, is to significantly damage the ability of Palestinian terror groups to fire rockets into Israeli territory. Operation Pillar of Defense began Wednesday afternoon with the assassination of Hamas's military chief Ahmed Jabari. The targets immediately expanded to rocket launching and storage sites, particularly longer-range rockets that can strike over 40 kilometers from the Gaza Strip.
According to Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency, 16 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the operation. At least two children, including an 11-month-old baby were among the casualties.
Following a rocket strike targetting the Tel Aviv area Thursday night, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned, "This escalation will exact a price that the other side will have to pay."
Earlier on Thursday, Barak hinted that Operation Pillar of Defense against Gaza-based terrorists could be a lengthy battle.
Also Thursday, the IDF requested authorization to call up 30,000 reserve troops, possibly preparing for a ground operation.
On Wednesday, Jabari was killed when an IAF missile struck the car he was traveling in, in the central Strip. One other person was killed in the attack.
Following the assassination, the IAF struck over 20 underground rocket launchers belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The airstrikes targeted long-range rockets in the possession of terror organizations, such as the Fajr-5 and other rockets that are capable of striking Tel Aviv from Gaza. Palestinian sources said that six Gazans were killed in the IDF strikes.
In response to the attacks, Hamas said that "the occupation has opened the gates of hell."
Senior Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq said the assassination will not "break the will of our people, nor weaken our resistance," Al Ahram reported. Al-Rishq made the comments on his Facebook site, adding that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is using the "war crime" to boost his chances of reelection, but that it could "cost him his political future."
Wednesday's violence came after a four-day rocket barrage which began Saturday appeared to have come to an end on Tuesday evening. The hostilities saw over 100 rockets fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel and Israeli retaliatory strikes which killed six Palestinians.
Both Israel and Hamas sent signals to each other via Egypt that they would hold their fire unless attacked, after five days of mounting violence.