As it happened: Gaza-Israel violence 18 November 2012

Good morning and welcome to the BBC's live coverage of the Israel-Gaza violence. Stay with us for the latest updates, incorporating reports from our correspondents on the ground, expert analysis, and your reaction from around the world, which you can send via email, text or twitter. We'll publish what we can.

The IDF says it carried out two attacks at 0200 and 0650 local time "targeting antennas" on buildings "being used by Hamas to communicate with its forces in the field".

Cairo is the centre of intense diplomatic activity, trying to end the Gaza conflict. Egypt is leading the mediation efforts. Also currently in town are the Hamas leader, Khaled Mashal, and two other key regional players - the Emir of Qatar and the Turkish prime minister. There's little evidence on the ground that either Israel or Hamas are ready yet to step back from confrontation, but the Egyptian leader President Morsi expressed optimism that a ceasefire might be possible soon.

According to the Israeli military two rockets were fired from Gaza at approximately 0800 local time, the first since yesterday. They landed on open ground near the border with no injuries or damage.

Medical sources in Gaza say an 18 month-old baby has died in an Israeli air strike east of the Bureij refugee camp.

After attacking a media centre used by foreign journalists and pro-Hamas media outlets, Israel appears to have taken over the frequencies of the radio stations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. A message was broadcast in Arabic warning people to stay away from Hamas. It said the IDF was "moving toward the second phase of its operation".

This picture shows an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Media Centre this morning. It is used by a pro-Hamas TV station and several foreign networks, including Sky News and ITN. At least six journalists were reported to be injured.

Four Palestinian rockets are reported to have been fired toward the Israeli border city of Ashkelon from Gaza

Writes: It has taken a psychological adjustment for locals [in Tel Aviv] to realise that they too are now within the firing range of certain Palestinian rockets - believed to be the Iranian-made Fajr-5, which can reach up to 75km (45 miles).

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports that the Palestinian death toll since Operation Pillar of Defence began on Wednesday has risen to 51, with 300 people wounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Barack Obama last night, according to his party's website. It reports that he thanked the US preseident for America's financial support for Israel's Iron Dome defence system, which has intercepted around third of the rockets fired by Hamas over the last five days.

Away from Gaza, Reuters reports that IDF has fired artillery into Syria in response to gunfire aimed at its troops in the Golan Heights.

told the BBC: "It is a very difficult when you have Hamas on the one side who have clearly not been containing these appalling rocket attacks on the civilian population of Israel - and in a sense are looking as though they're undermining the attempts by the more moderate Palestinian faction, Fatah, who are trying to pursue a diplomatic path through the United Nations at the moment - but on the other side perhaps you have hawks in Israel, who are really not helping the peace process by not over-reacting to this very serious situation."

Iranian lawmakers deny supplying Fajr-5 rockets to Hamas, according to a report on Iran's Arabic-language Al Alam TV network.

A senior Hamas member has told the AFP news agency that a truce could be reached "today or tomorrow". The anonymous official said "there are serious talks to reach a truce", AFP reported.

In this Haaretz piece, journalists Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff say Israel is not seeking to topple Hamas, just to rein it in.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak is reported to be planning to ask the cabinet today for an extra NIS 750 million (£119m) to speed up the delivery of additional Iron Dome defence weapons systems.

In a speech late last night, Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah said any attempt by the IDF to launch a ground offensive in Gaza would be a "stupid mistake". "The resistance in Gaza has acquired power, determination, and planning capabilities and has filled [strategic] gaps," he said.

IDF says eight rockets fired at Israel since midnight. Three hit, four intercepted by iron dome. One landed in Gaza.

French Foreign Minister Laurence Fabius is en route to Israel to "offer France's help to nreach an immediate ceasefire"

Sirens have been heard for a fourth day in Tel Aviv, Israel's cultural and commercial capital.

Witnesses told Reuters that two explosions were heard after the sirens in Tel Aviv.

Hamas' military wing has claimed responsibility for the rocket just fired at Tel Aviv, Reuters reports. The Iron Dome defence system is reported to have intercepted the missile.

Israeli police say two more rockets have been fired toward Tel Aviv, both of them shot by the Iron Dome system.

A house in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon has apparently taken a direct rocket hit. Injuries and damage are reported.

Netanyahu tells his weekly cabinet meeting: "Hamas is paying a high price. We are ready for serious broadening of the operation", Haaretz reports.

In the early hours of the morning the Israeli navy began shelling Gaza from the sea. Artillery fire is generally less accurate than airstrikes. Israel says it was targeting underground rocket launching sites and Hamas training areas. Hamas health officials here say a one year-old boy and a three year-old girl are among those who died overnight.

Images from the attacks and protests in Gaza and the West Bank over the last 24 hours are up here.

Reports of a major airstrike in Gaza in the last few minutes.

The Foreign Press Association has put out this statement regarding today's attacks on two media centres in Gaza. It references UN Security Council Resolution 1738, which "condemns attacks against journalists in conflict situations".

Five Palestinian civilians have been killed in airstrikes so far today, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra told AP, including four children. Two of the children, a 3 year-old girl and a 5 year-old boy, were from the same family and were killed by an airstrike on their home in the Jebaliya refugee camp.

Israeli soldiers watch as an Iron Dome launcher fires a rocket to intercept missiles fired from Gaza near the southern city of Ashdod.

One of the journalists injured during an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Media Centre lost his leg in the attack, according to reports.

Haaretz reports that a car has caught fire in Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, after it was hit by shrapnel from an Iron Dome rocket interception.

has just published this op-ed on Al Jazeera's website. He says aside from the grievances of each party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, "one side is militarily omnipotent and the other side crouches helplessly in fear".

A demonstration in the Indonesian capital Jakarta against Israeli attacks on Gaza has now moved to the US Embassy, Indonesian Detikcom website reports. It says thousands of people have gathered outside the embassy to demand that the US put pressure on Israel to stop its military operation.

One person has been killed and another four wounded on Sunday in an Isreali strike on a beachfront refugee camp in Gaza City, hospital sources and eyewitnesses told AFP.

One Israeli has been seriously wounded in rocket attack on Sha'ar Hanegev, Haaretz reports.

told the BBC: "I've already called for an end to the violence. Look at the retired head of Shin Bet, the Israeli security forces: he says a ground invasion would give Hamas exactly what it wants. We will see more loss of life. Just four years ago I was the first British minister into Gaza, after Operation Cast Lead. On that occasion there were a hundred Palestinians killed for every Israeli killed; already in the last three days there have tragically been the deaths of three Israelis, but more than forty Palestinians."

In this picture, Palestinian children walk past homes destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

Israel Defence Force says that overnight it targeted Hamas' Saraya primary training and command base, a communications facility, underground rocket launchers and Hamas operatives.

We've been down to the main hospital in Gaza a number of times and the emergency wards were full. Every minute medical staff were bringing in new victims of Israeli strikes. The longer this goes one, the more likely they are to run out of materials.

BBC producer Avi Halfon filmed the aftermath of a rocket strike on a house in the town of Ashkelon (see 0851 entry)

Hamas's militant wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, says on its website that "for the first time ever, we have fired an upgraded rocket at Herzliyya, located 80km from Gaza", BBC Monitoring reports. The website adds that since this morning, the Qassam Brigades have "targeted enemy posts with 34 rockets". "Most prominent of these was the targeting of Tel Aviv and a warship," the report says.

told Sky News: The Prime Minister and I have both stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation, that of course it's much more difficult to restrict and avoid civilian casualties during a ground invasion and that a large ground operation would threaten to prolong the conflict.

The IDF has told BBC it knew foreign media were in at least one of the buildings in Gaza when it was hit. Says they were not the target.

People in Israel are less gung-ho than before the last big military incursion into Gaza in 2008/9. They want rockets to stop but there is much apprehension here. Although neither side wants a ground invasion, neither Hamas nor Israel want to be seen to be the first to 'back down'.

writes in the Daily Beast: "One does not have to be a card-carrying member of Cynics Anonymous to suggest that the timing of the Israeli escalation has rather a lot to do with the approaching elections in Israel. It would also, though, be mistaken to view events exclusively through that lens."

has just posted this audio recording of an IDF spokesperson discussing the strike on a media centre in Gaza earlier today. She advised journalists visiting Gaza to "stay away from Hamas positions or Hamas sites or Hamas homes for their own safety".

told the BBC: " [Hospitals in Gaza are] in severe shortage of drugs and disposables - cotton wool, gauze, anti-septic, you know, IV fluids and so on. More than half of those kind of items were out of stock before all this began. And that's our worry: You can't just stop everything in a health system and just deal with the casualties."

While there's been confirmation from both sides that attempts to reach a cease-fire are still going on in Cairo, in and around Gaza itself there's been barely any let up in the exchange of fire.

Today Israel opened one of the main goods crossings into Gaza to allow in several truck loads of medical supplies and other emergency equipment. Aid agencies are warning that supplies in Gaza's hospitals are running low, and will become critical in the event of a wider conflict.

According to Haaretz, the Iron Dome defence system has intercepted a rocket en route to Netivot, two headed for Ofakim, and two fired at Sderot.

Israeli soldiers prepare tanks at an army deployment area near the border with Gaza.

Further clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces are reported to have broken out at the Howara checkpoint near Nablus in the West Bank.

ITV has posted this video of the damage to the media centre in Gaza hit by an Israeli airstrike today, injuring eight Palestinian journalists.

Israeli radio says that since the start of the Israeli operation in Gaza, the army has hit 1,000 targets. Army sources have told the station that "there are still targets to be attacked".

The AFP news agency describes the scene at the beachfront Shati refugee camp in Gaza city, where a 13 year-old girl and another man were killed earlier: "Shattered glass littered the floor by a large pool of blood, as women screamed and wept hysterically. A nearby minibus was peppered with holes, its windows all blown out by the blast."

Israeli President Shimon Peres tells Sky News: "We appreciate the efforts of the president of Egypt to introduce a ceasefire. But until now, as you know, Hamas has rejected the proposal of the Egyptian president as well. Basically, our purpose is peace. Their purpose is to destroy Israel."

UN Secretary General Bank Ki-moon is due to arrive in Egypt on Monday for talks with the Egyptian president and other officials. The situation in Gaza is likely to be discussed.

Palestinians inspect a destroyed home in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on Sunday.

Haaretz reports that the Israeli Chief of Staff has just concluded a meeting assessing the military situation and instructed the IDF to pick up the pace of strikes on Gaza.

Rocket just fired now from Gaza

Iran's parliamentary speaker has said Tehran expects regional countries to send weapons to the Palestinians to help them fight Israel. "Although political measures taken by the regional countries are admirable, they are definitely not sufficient," Ali Larijani said in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.

Reports from Gaza: "Suddenly hospitals busting with activity. Two children have been brought in, one covered in blood and his brother hysterical"

President Barack Obama says the US is fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself, but his administration is also actively working with parties in the region to end the firing of Hamas missiles without the further escalation of violence.

President Obama also said that he has told the region's leaders that continued violence in Gaza makes it harder to pursue a Middle East peace deal.

A Palestinian Christian lights a candle during a prayer to show solidarity with Gaza at a Catholic church in the West Bank town of Beit Jala near Bethlehem.

President Obama on Israel/Gaza: "There's no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders... we are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself."

The injured arriving at Shifa hospital in Gaza are from an air attack north of Gaza city. Three dead - one woman, two children. Ten injured.

Ahead of a meeting with France's foreign minister, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said "the first and absolute condition for a truce is stopping all fire from Gaza".

AFP reports deaths of three Palestinians - two women and a man - as well as 10 wounded in new aerial attack, citing Gaza emergency services.

Hamas-run al-Quds TV quotes Arab League General Secretary Nabil al-Arabi as saying that a delegation of Arab ministers will visit Gaza on Tuesday, BBC Monitoring reports.

Israel's Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aaronovitch says a ground operation in Gaza is certainly "an option", meanwhile the air force has "plenty of targets", Israel Army Radio reports.

Israel Radio reports rockets being fired from Gaza at Ashdod, Ashkelon, Kiryat Malakhi and Gan Yavneh. Three fell in a residential area of Ashdod and seven people were treated for shock.

An unidentified senior Israeli official has arrived in Cairo for ceasefire talks, according to AP news agency quoting Egyptian security officials.

Rescue efforts at a Hamas man's family home after an Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza. Most of the casualties are from the man's family but some neighbours were caught up in the blast as well.

Gaza health ministry now saying at least 58 dead since Wednesday. Numbers look set to rise. Four children killed today including a one-year-old boy and three-year-old girl. A number of people missing under rubble. At least 560 injured since Wednesday.

Rocket that landed beside a car in Ofakim leaves two people with moderate to severe wounds, Israel Army Radio reports. Another rocket hits house in Ashdod - it is not yet known if anyone was hurt, the station's website says.

The Israeli air strike on the three-storey building in Gaza City was the highest figure for deaths in a single incident in five days of fighting, Reuters news agency reports. Three women, six children and one man died, the agency says.

Five people were hurt in a rocket attack from Gaza on the Israeli town of Ofakim, according to Israeli media. Quoting Channel 2 TV, The Times of Israel says a mother and father and their infant were hit by shrapnel as they tried to take cover beside their car. The infant was lightly hurt, the parents are in a moderate to serious condition. Two others were lightly hurt.

Israel Radio says that an Israeli army attack has "apparently killed" Hamas's rocket corps commander Yahya Abaya, BBC Monitoring reports.

Israel army Chief of Staff Benny Gantz has ordered troops to "continue the strikes on terrorist infrastructures and key activists" and to "step up the pace of the raids in the Gaza Strip", Israel Radio reports, according to BBC Monitoring.

Israeli radio is also reporting that Egypt is facing difficulties in talks with Hamas owing to opposition from other organisations operating in the Gaza Strip. Israel has sent an unidentified representative for talks with the Egyptian security apparatus.

Israel's Iron Dome missile shield was tested in combat for the first time in April 2011. According to the Israeli army, it has knocked out more than 300 rockets fired at Israel in the past four days. See this BBC online explanation of the radar defence system developed in the aftermath of the 2006 conflict with Hezbollah.

Massive explosion in centre of Gaza City.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says the pace of diplomacy is stepping up. On Saturday night, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal met Egyptian, Turkish and Qatari leaders. An Israeli delegation is currently in talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo. On Monday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrives in the Egyptian capital and, on Tuesday, Arab ministers are due to travel to Gaza.

Reuters has this article detailing claims by Israeli security forces that some of Hamas's longer range rockets have been stripped of weapons so they can travel further.

Palestinian journalists' group Mada has accused Israel of "trying to silence the press in Gaza", the Ma'an news agency reports.

Speaking earlier in Bangkok, President Barack Obama said that "Israel has every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory", but he said it was "preferable" for the people of Gaza and for Israelis that the crisis come to an end "without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting earlier on Sunday, emphasising the efforts being made to avoid hitting civilians. He said the "operation in the Gaza Strip is continuing and we are prepared to expand it". He would, he said, continue to speak to world leaders.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will discuss the crisis with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the Asean meeting in Phnom Penh, Russian Interfax news agency reports, as seen by BBC Monitoring. "I shall have a meeting with Hillary Clinton on the morning of 20 November," Lavrov told journalists before leaving for Cambodia, adding that they would talk about the situation in the Gaza Strip.

Welcome to the BBC's live coverage of the Israel-Gaza violence which has continued for five days. An air strike on the house of Hamas official Mohamed Dalou has left at least nine people dead - the highest single loss of life since the crisis erupted on Wednesday. Rockets have been targeted at several Israeli towns and cities, with a couple and their infant being wounded near Ofakim and at least people hurt in a direct hit on a house in Ashkelon. Meanwhile, ceasefire efforts are continuing in Cairo.

Here is some of the damage in Gaza City, as seen by Associated Press photographer Adel Hana.

The Palestinian Ma'an news agency now reports that 11 people were killed in the Israeli air strike on Hamas man Mohamed Dalou's home. Four of the dead were children and four were women, it reports.

Israeli media report that Israel's Iron Dome missile shield has shot down two rockets over Ashkelon. Earlier, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak (L) visited a battery deployed near Tel Aviv on Friday with the US ambassador, Dan Shapiro.

Israel Radio reports on a meeting between PM Benjamin Netanyahu and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. "First it's necessary to stop [the fighting], then we''ll be ready to talk about other matters," the Israeli PM says. Israel cannot continue to be in the line of fire, he adds. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman says Israel will cease fire only when Hamas and other militant organisations halt rocket attacks completely, the station's website says.

Air raid sirens heard in Tel Aviv, Reuters news agency reports, citing witnesses.

Israeli army says rocket intercepted by Iron Dome anti-missile battery in Tel Aviv, reports AFP

Gaza health ministry says the number of people killed in Gaza since Wednesday has risen to 67, says BBC Gaza producer Rushdi abu Alouf.

Israel Army Radio reports that for the second time on Sunday a rocket was fired at Tel Aviv and was shot down by Iron Dome. Sirens heard throughout Tel Aviv.

Israeli police spokesman says two rockets were fired at Tel Aviv from Gaza, both shot down by Iron Dome, Reuters reports. Israel's Channel Two TV also reported two explosions and two interceptions by missile protection system.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev tells BBC News that diplomatic efforts are going on in parallel with the operation in Gaza but declines to specify the stage they have reached.

"We understand the significance of a ground operation, first and foremost for our own soldiers," Mr Regev tells the BBC. "So obviously such a decision is not taken lightly. On the other hand the goal of bringing peace and quiet to the people of southern Israel has to be fulfilled."

Reporting on the ongoing ceasefire efforts in Cairo, BBC correspondent Jon Leyne sees it as quite a good sign that the politicians do not want to talk about diplomacy "because it probably means something is being done".

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who has been meeting Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, says: "We would like to help in reaching the terms for a quick ceasefire. Other questions remain to be answered, especially in the long term, and that applies to the negotiations. But we're insisting on the urgency and the need to reach a ceasefire."

Here is Laurent Fabius (L) at a press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Jerusalem.

Reporters without Borders has condemned the Israeli air strikes on two media buildings in Gaza City. "Even if the targeted media support Hamas, this does not in any way legitimise the attacks," the group says.

Two media buildings were hit in Gaza and eight Palestinian journalists were wounded, one of whom had to have a leg amputated. Hamas television channel al-Quds TV, Sky News and ITN were among the media organisations using the buildings. Reporters without Borders said five missiles hit 11th-floor offices used by al-Quds TV, wounding four al-Quds TV employees and two others. Employees of Hamas channel al-Aqsa TV were seriously hurt in the second attack, the group said. This is the aftermath of the attack on the building housing al-Aqsa TV.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas calls for an intensification of peaceful demonstrations against Israel, reports AFP.

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz says more than 44 million hacking attacks have been made on government websites since Israeli air strikes were launched on Gaza on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Just one was successful, but the site involved was up and running 10 minutes later.

There has been no let-up in the violence on Sunday, with 21 Palestinians killed in Gaza and many more wounded, both in Gaza and in Israel. In the deadliest attack, at least 10 people died, including eight members of Hamas official Mohamed al-Dalu's family. Six people, four of them children, were killed in earlier attacks. And later on Sunday, two men were killed in Gaza City and a father and son died in Jabaliya. Another death was reported later in Nuseirat refugee camp.

Here is the crater left by the Israeli air strike on what was Hamas official Mohamed al-Dalu's family home in Gaza City.

Seven people were wounded in southern Israel as rocket fire continued from Gaza throughout Sunday. Two rockets were shot down by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system. Four people, including a couple and their young child, were hurt when a rocket landed near a car in Ofakim. Close to the Gaza Strip, one person was badly wounded by a rocket in Sha'ar HaNegev. This was the aftermath of the attack in Ofakim.

Ha'aretz newspaper in Israel reports that an Israeli envoy in talks in Cairo is seeking a twin-stage ceasefire. First a "small calm", in which Israeli air strikes and Gaza rocket fire would halt, and then talks leading to a "big calm".

"All the streets in my area are dark because they lack electricity. There are no people in the streets since sunset because people are afraid to go out," Motasem Dalloul in Gaza City tells BBC News. "There is damage to the electricity grid and the water network. There are also some difficulties with mobile phone connections."

"I can hear the warplanes in the skies above me. There have been several loud explosions and Gazans are settling down for a very long night."

Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have staged protests against the air attacks on Gaza. Several protesters were reportedly hurt in the West Bank city of Nablus when tear gas was fired to disperse stonethrowers. Ma'an news agency in Bethlehem said in total over 21 people had been hurt. This was the scene in Nablus:

In his televised statement in Ramallah on Sunday evening, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said that the bid for Palestine to become a UN "non-member observer state", due to take place on 29 November, would go ahead as planned.

"The United States of America has got to push as hard as we can to resolve this Israeli-Palestinian issue," says Republican Senator John McCain on CBS TV. "I'd find someone even as high ranking as former President Bill Clinton to go and be the negotiator."

About 500 Egyptian activists have crossed into Gaza to deliver medical supplies and show support for Palestinians, reports AP news agency. "We are telling the Palestinians that we are on their side," said activist Adam Mubarak.

Five buses carrying Egyptian activists had travelled to the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza, all from different political parties and movements, AFP reports.

Ma'an news agency reports that Israeli fighter jets fired missiles at the home of al-Qassam Brigades leader Marwan Issa in the central Gaza Strip.

Unclear reports emerging from talks in Cairo, after unnamed Israeli envoy meets Egyptian officials. Some suggesting talks have failed. Ynet news reports that Islamic Jihad senior official is to meet Egypt's President Mursi.

From BBC Monitoring: Hamas' ability to fire rockets from Gaza is "declining", according to Israel Defense Forces spokesman Brigadier General Yo'av Mordekhay, speaking to Voice of Israel radio. Gen Mordekhay said that "hundreds of rockets fired from mosques, chapels, and houses have started to fall within the boundaries of the Gaza Strip and in open spaces."

AFP news agency reports medical sources as saying two Palestinians have been killed in a new Israeli strike on Gaza.

For tweets from our correspondents reporting on the ground in Gaza and Israel, you can subscribe to this list.

More from AFP on the latest Israeli raid: The two latest deaths were in the Gaza City neighbourhood of Tal al-Hawa, according to a spokesman from the Hamas-run health ministry.

tweets: HUGE explosions just hit central #Gaza My house is Shaking #israel

A third Palestinian, a six-year-old child, was killed in another strike in northern Gaza on Sunday evening, AFP reports.

An explosion has been heard in the past hour in the southern resort city of Eilat, according to Israel Radio. The source of the blast is currently being investigated.

There have been no reports of damage or casualties in Eilat after a blast was heard there on Sunday evening, Israeli police have told Reuters. "After a sweep of the city nothing has so far been found. Police and the army are searching the hills around the city," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

We are now ending our live coverage of the violence between the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza. Remember you can check back on the BBC News website for the latest information throughout the night and with our correspondents on the ground in Gaza and Israel on Twitter.