For a second straight night, Israeli forces attacked the Gaza Strip, claiming to hit around 150 suspected rocket and ammunition warehouses. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
By NBC News and wire reports
Updated at 8:02 a.m. ET: Israel started drafting 16,000 reserve troops on Friday as Egypt?s prime minister visited the Gaza Strip to show support for Palestinians amid a cross-border conflict with Hamas militants that risks spiraling into an all-out war.
But even as Prime Minister Hesham Kandil arrived for a three-hour visit in the coastal enclave, a temporary cease-fire declared by Israel at Egypt?s request collapsed after both sides accused the other of violating it.
Explosions were heard Friday in Tel Aviv, prompting the city to sound air raid sirens, NBC?s Lawahez Jabari reported.
A police spokesman said one rocket fired toward the coastal city fell into the sea. "The rocket landed off the shores of Tel Aviv," the spokesman told Reuters.
Earlier, Hamas' military wing also claimed it had struck a building in the southern Israeli town of Ashkelon, NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reported. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the military intercepted four rockets over Ashkelon, but that one exploded in an open area.
It was the?second straight day that Gaza militants have targeted Tel Aviv.?The attacks, which Israel considers to be a major escalation, could draw an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza closer.
Ronen Zvulun / Reuters
Israeli soldiers prepare armored personnel carriers near the border with the Gaza Strip on Friday.
Israeli troops have massed near the Palestinian territory and witnesses said they could see Israeli ships off Gaza's coast, Mohyeldin reported. Israel's army would be heavily dependent on reservists to fight any prolonged war. The military has received a green light to call in up to 30,000 reserve troops.
It was unclear Friday whether Israel?s move to call up reservists presaged a ground invasion or was intended more as an intimidation tactic to pressure Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he was prepared to ?take whatever action is necessary,? but Israel has also expressed strong desire to preserve its peace with the new Egyptian leadership. Israel?s announcement that it would hold fire during Kandil?s visit appeared to show its commitment to the treaty.
Overnight, the military said it targeted about 150 of the sites Gaza gunmen use to fire rockets at Israel, as well as ammunition warehouses, bringing to 450 the number of sites struck since the operation began Wednesday.?
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Hamas chief killed
The latest upsurge in the long-running conflict came Wednesday when?Israel killed Hamas' military mastermind, Ahmed Jabari, in a precision airstrike on his car. Israel then began shelling Gaza from land, air and sea.
At least 19 Palestinians, including seven militants and 12 civilians, among them six children and a pregnant woman, have been killed in Israeli airstrikes. A Hamas rocket killed three Israelis in the town of Kiryat Malachi on Thursday.
Israeli warplanes have attacked more targets in Gaza City, as the military showdown with Hamas continued to escalate and casualties on both sides mount. NBC's John Ray reports.
Israel says its offensive responded to increasing missile salvos from Gaza. Its bombing has not yet reached the saturation level seen before it last invaded Gaza in 2008, but Israeli officials have said a ground assault remains possible.
Netanyahu warned Thursday of a "significant widening" of the Gaza operation. Israel will "continue to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people," said Netanyahu, who is up for re-election in January.?
At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers toward Gaza late Thursday, and buses carrying soldiers headed toward the border area, according to The Associated Press.
NBC News correspondent Martin Fletcher described Israel's call-up of reservists as "extremely significant."?
An Israeli ground offensive could be costly to both sides. In the last Gaza war, Israel devastated parts of the territory, setting back Hamas' fighting capabilities but also paying the price of increasing diplomatic isolation because of a civilian death toll numbering in the hundreds.?
Kandil crossed into Gaza before midday through the only border post with Egypt, heavily guarded by Egyptian security personnel wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles, The Associated Press reported.
Adel Hana / AP
Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil, left, and senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh wave to onlookers in Gaza City on Friday.
He was greeted by Gaza's Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, who ventured out in public for the first time since Israel launched the offensive Wednesday by assassinating the militant group's military commander.
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"Egypt will spare no effort ... to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce," Kandil said later.
"Palestine is the heart of the Arab and Muslim world and the body is not healthy while the heart is sick," he added.
More than 200 missiles were fired at Israel Thursday; Israel, in turn, launched about 200 missiles against Palestinian targets. NBC's Martin Fletcher reports.
Instability
This week?s fighting has widened the instability gripping the region, further straining Israel-Egypt relations.
Gaza militants unleashed dozens of rocket barrages overnight. An Israeli military spokeswoman told the AP that about 50 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza while Kandil was in the Palestinian territory. Israeli broadcasts showed damage from one rocket that struck the southern city of Ashkelon.
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Israel's military denied allegations by Hamas that it had carried out attacks during Kandil's visit. Hamas alleged Israel's attacks on Friday killed two people.
"Hamas does not respect the Egyptian PM's visit to Gaza and violates the temporary cease fire that Israel agreed to during the visit," Ofir Gendelman, a spokesman for Netanyahu, wrote on Twitter.
Amir Cohen / Reuters
Two sides exchange deadly airstrikes, rocket attacks.
Israel had announced it would suspend military operations in Gaza during Kandil's visit so long as Hamas also halted all fire.
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Israel estimates the militants have 12,000 rockets, including more sophisticated weapons from Iran and from Libyan stockpiles plundered after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's regime there last year.
Diplomatic efforts
U.N. diplomats said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would head to Israel and Egypt next week to try to mediate a ceasefire, although they gave no further details.
The United States has asked countries that have contact with Hamas to urge the Islamist movement to stop its recent rocket attacks from Gaza, a White House adviser said.
"We've ... urged those that have a degree of influence with Hamas, such as Turkey and Egypt and some of our European partners, to use that influence to urge Hamas to de-escalate," Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser, said in a conference call with reporters.
Analysis: Israel, Gaza slide closer to war neither side wants
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in an interview with Voice of America: "I understand the reasons Israel is doing what they're doing. They've been the target of missiles coming in from Gaza ... ."
Suhaib Salem / Reuters
A Palestinian woman cries in front of a house damaged by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Hanoun, the northern Gaza Strip, on Friday.
He added, "Our hope is that in striking back that they can minimize the civilian deaths that are likely to occur."
In 1979, Egypt became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel. But tensions between the two countries have increased since the ouster of U.S.-backed strongman Hosni Mubarak last year.
The Cairo government has recalled its ambassador in protest over Israel?s strikes this week.
Hamas, which evolved from an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has ruled Gaza since winning elections in 2007. Gaza is separated geographically from the West Bank, which is governed by the secular Palestinian Authority. At its narrowest point, the distance between the two territories is just under 30 miles.
In Gaza, fear of a ground invasion has sent shock waves through the region. Coming days could prove dangerous. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin has more.
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Egypt's new Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, viewed by Hamas as a protector, faces domestic pressure to act tough.
But Egypt gets $1.3 billion a year in U.S. military aid and looks to Washington for help with its ailing economy, constraining Morsi despite his need to show Egyptians that his policies differ from those of Mubarak.
The conflagration has stoked the flames of a Middle East ablaze with two years of Arab popular revolution and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread farther afield.
The Muslim Brotherhood, which brought Morsi to power, has called for a "Day of Rage" in Arab capitals on Friday.
NBC News' Martin Fletcher, Lawahez Jabari and Charlene Gubash, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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