Latest developments:
- Hamas headquarters were hit by four air strikes, the group reports.
- Israeli military says it struck 180 targets in the Gaza Strip overnight.
- At least 35 Palestinians and three Israelis have so far been killed since the fighting erupted last week.
- Tunisian foreign minister condemns Israeli attacks on Saturday trip to Gaza
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Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with more than 180 airstrikes early Saturday, the military said, widening a blistering assault on militant operations to include the prime minister?s headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels.
The new attacks followed an unprecedented rocket strike from Gaza aimed at the contested holy city of Jerusalem that raised the stakes in Israel?s violent confrontation with Palestinian militants.
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Israeli aircraft also kept pounding their original targets, the militants? weapons storage facilities and underground rocket launching sites. The Israeli military called up 75,000 reservists and amassed troops, tanks and armored vehicles along the border with Hamas-ruled Gaza, signaling a ground invasion could be imminent.
Undaunted by the heavy damage the Israeli attacks have inflicted, militants have unleashed some 500 rockets against the Jewish state, including new, longer-range weapons turned for the first time this week against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israel's second most populous city.
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Six people, including five militants, were killed and dozens were wounded in the various attacks Saturday, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra told reporters in the city. In all, 35 Palestinians, including 13 civilians, and three Israeli civilians have been killed since Wednesday.
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Israel had been slowly expanding its operation beyond military targets but before dawn on Saturday it ramped that up dramatically, hitting Hamas' symbols of power.
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A three-story apartment building belonging to a Hamas military commander was hit, and ambulances ferried out more than 30 inhabitants wounded by the powerful explosion.
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The Interior Ministry said a government compound was hit while devout Muslims streamed to the area for early morning prayers, although it did not report any casualties from that attack. Also hit was a cabinet building where the Hamas prime minister has his offices. Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh was not inside.
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The Hamas government said its cabinet headquarters was targeted with four strikes, and witnesses reported extensive damage to the building.
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On Saturday Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafik Abdesslem visited the Gaza Strip and denounced the Israeli attacks as unacceptable and against international law.?Israel should understand that many things have changed and that lots of water has run in the Arab river,? Abdesslem said as he surveyed Prime Minister Haniyeh's office, reduced to rubble.
?(Israel) should realise it no longer has a free hand. It does not have total immunity and is not above international law,? he added. ?What Israel is doing is not legitimate and is not acceptable at all.?
Obama in talks with Israel and Egypt
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As the violence escalated, US President Barack Obama spoke separately to Israeli and Egyptian leaders.
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The White House said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Obama on Friday to provide an update on the situation. Netanyahu expressed appreciation to Obama and the American people for US investment in the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defense system, which has been used to defend Israel against rocket attacks from Gaza, saving many Israeli lives, the White House said.
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Obama reiterated US support for Israel?s right to self-defense and discussed possible ways to scale back the conflict, the White House said. It did not offer specifics.
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Separately, Obama called Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Friday and praised Egypt?s efforts to ease tensions in the region, the White House said.?
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Obama?s praise comes after Egypt?s Prime Minister Hisham Kandil visited Gaza on Friday promising to ?spare no effort to stop the aggression and achieve a truce?.
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President Morsi also promised that his country would ?not leave Gaza on its own" in the face of Israel's "blatant aggression against humanity", the MENA news agency reported.
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Jerusalem targeted
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In Jerusalem air raid sirens sounded on Friday, when Hamas fired a long-range rocket at the city - the first attack on the holy city in Hamas? history. Israeli media reported the rocket landed in an uninhabited zone outside of the city.
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The siren that sounded in Jerusalem stunned many Israelis. ?The city, holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians, was last struck by a Palestinian rocket in 1970, and it was not a target when Saddam Hussein?s Iraq fired missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.
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World divided on violence
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Operation Pillar of Defence is Israel's biggest military campaign in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in nearly four years.
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The operation has prompted an outpouring of anger across the Arab and Muslim world, with Tehran accusing the Jewish state of "organised terrorism" and Qatar's prime minister saying the strikes "must not pass unpunished."
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As Russia slammed Israel for "disproportionate" use of force in Gaza, Britain said it was Hamas that bore "principal responsibility" for the current crisis, with both governments calling for calm.
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Middle East envoy Tony Blair also urged Hamas to stop targeting Israeli towns, warning that "the retaliation will increase" while the US White House said there was "no justification" for rocket attacks on Israel and blamed Hamas for the explosion of violence.
(FRANCE 24 with wires)
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