Gaza officials: Death toll from Israeli strikes rises to 43

The attack came after a night of deadly exchanges of rocket fire between Israel and Palestinians. It was an abrupt escalation of weeks of tension with roots in disputed Jerusalem.

Gaza City:The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has climbed to 43, including 13 children and three women.

It says nearly 300 Palestinians in the territory have been wounded in the strikes, which began Monday as Palestinians launched a barrage of rockets into Israel.

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The worst fighting since the 2014 Gaza war was ignited by clashes in Jerusalem in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police focused on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims.

A video released by Israel's military on Wednesday shows a swarm of interception missiles fired by anti-rocket defence systems as an area in the South of the country came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.

Rockets streamed out of Gaza and Israel in turn pounded the territory with airstrikes.

Gaza's Hamas rulers and other militant groups have fired hundreds of rockets that at times have overwhelmed Israel's missile defences, causing air raid sirens and explosions to echo across Tel Aviv, Israel's biggest metropolitan area, and other cities.

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Five Israelis, including three women and a child, were killed by rocket fire Tuesday and early Wednesday, and dozens of people were wounded.

Israeli airstrikes have levelled two multi-story apartment towers in the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007.

The most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 war took on many hallmarks of that devastating 50-day conflict, with no endgame in sight.

AP