More than 230 people have been killed and up to 800 wounded in an extensive Israeli military attack on the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian medical sources said.
Israel says film footage suggests the majority of those killed were in military uniform.
Israel’s air force attacked some 50 locations in the coastal enclave in an attempt to end the barrage of mortars and rockets that have been launched onto Israel homes since last week. At least 170 individual airstrikes were recorded by the Israel Air Force.
Rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip onto Israel intensified on Saturday, killing one Israeli civilian in the Israeli town Netivot and wounding at least five others.
More than 55 missiles and mortar rounds were fired onto Israel during the day.
The targets chosen in Gaza included what Israel called terrorist training camps and headquarters.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the operation would continue "for as long as necessary."
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the objective of the operation was to stop the attacks on Israeli communities surrounding Gaza and added that it was not limited in time.
He also said he estimated the number of rockets fired onto Israel would increase, and their range would grow larger.
Addressing the people of Gaza, Olmert said Israel would focus its attacks on military – not civilian – targets, and he blamed Hamas for the situation in Gaza.
Hamas is an Islamist organization which does not recognize Israel and is designated by Israel a terrorist organization.
Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007 in a violent coup, creating a de facto separation between the Gaza Strip, which is run by a Hamas government, and the West Bank, which has a separate government recognized by the West and supported by Fatah.
Israel has been limiting the entry of goods such as fuel and cargo into the Gaza Strip in an attempt to pressure the Hamas government there into resigning.
Jerusalem is trying to weed out terrorists in the Gaza Strip and is also concerned about the fate of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who has been held by Hamas since he fell into captivity on the border between Gaza and Israel in June 2006.
Israel and Hamas reached a shaky six-month truce in June, with Egyptian mediation.
The truce ended last week and rocket firing onto Israel has since intensified.
Arab governments condemned Saturday’s attacks on Gaza.
Arab League Secretary General ‘Amru Moussa said the Jordanian government is calling for an emergency meeting of foreign ministers and called the operation a massacre.
Demonstrations are taking place in Jordan and Egypt, both of which have peace agreements with Israel, and solidarity rallies are being planned in other Arab capitals.
Rallies are also taking place in eastern Jerusalem and in the West Bank.
Palestinian factions in Gaza are accusing Arab states of conspiring against the Palestinians and linked Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni’s visit to Egypt on Thursday with Saturday’s assault on Gaza.
The Palestinian government in Ramallah condemned the attack.
The pan-Arab satellite channel Al-‘Arabiya described the attacks on its website as "the largest massacre on Palestinian lands since 1967."