Gaza Residents Told To Leave 'For Own Safety'

The Israeli military has ordered Palestinians living in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate "for their own safety".

Chief military spokesman Brigadier General Motti Almoz said Israel planned to step-up its offensive against militants and hit the area with heavy force in the next 24 hours.

Officials say the area has been used to fire rockets at Tel Aviv.

Artillery flares illuminate the sky following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza

Israel has been massing military hardware and personnel to the border with northern Gaza and says it will send messages to residents overnight telling them to leave.

Sky's Alex Rossi counted at least 100 armoured personnel carriers and tanks a few miles from the border though an Israeli Defence Force spokesman told Sky News a ground invasion was not imminent.

Four Israeli ground troops were hurt after they raided a rocket launching site in Gaza, according to the AP news agency.

A picture tweeted by Israel claiming to target a militant rocket site

Israel began its offensive on Tuesday in response to weeks of rocket attacks from Hamas militants in Gaza, who are understood to have fired some 600 missiles into the country.

On Saturday evening an Israeli warplane bombed the home of Gaza's police chief and damaged a nearby mosque, killing at least 18 people and wounding 50.

It was the deadliest single attack during the five-day conflict, which has now claimed more than 140 lives.

Injured Palestinians were rushed to al Shifa hospital in Gaza City as the bombardment continued.

Tel Aviv residents take cover during an air raid siren warning of an attack

Samah Al-Masri, the aunt of a 4-year-old girl injured in the strikes said: "As humans, you fear for your son and if you fear for your child or hear the sound of a rocket you will naturally want to hold them.

"When the child comes to hide in my arms and I find the entire house falling on top of us what do I do then?"

Dr. Ayman Al-Sahabany, Director of Emergency ward at al Shifa Hospital, said: "Women and children are more than half of the casualties. And children form a third of the total casualties."

No Israelis have died so far, and many of the rockets fired into the country have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system.

Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit the Nahariya region in northern Israel late on Saturday, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

Israeli soldiers rest in the shade of trees near central Gaza

The Israeli military said it responded with artillery fire toward "the source of fire", according to AP.

Hamas unleashed a barrage of rocket fire on Saturday after warning it planned to target Tel Aviv.

Three rockets apparently targeting the Jerusalem area fell short, hitting Hebron and Bethlehem, according to the Israeli army and Palestinian security sources.

The army said four rockets were fired at Tel Aviv. Three were intercepted above the city and the other hit open ground south of it.

Israeli soldiers walk across a field near central Gaza strip

Israel has been criticised for the civilian casualties that have resulted from its offensive on one of the most densely populated territories in the world.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a majority of those killed so far are civilians.

Israel says it is acting in self-defence and accuses Hamas of using Gaza's civilians as human shields by firing rockets from there.

It said Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Gaza militant groups use religious sites to conceal weapons and establish underground tunnel networks, deliberately endangering civilians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not end the campaign until he achieves his goal of stopping the rocket attacks from a "terrorist organisation which calls for our destruction".

Former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya said: "(Israel) is the one that started this aggression and it must stop, because we are (simply) defending ourselves."

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