“The deadly exchange of fire between Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli military has escalated significantly, with the UN fearing a “full-scale war”.
More than 1,000 rockets have been fired by Palestinian militants, Israel says. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes on Gaza, destroying three tower blocks and killing senior Hamas officials. At least 53 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed since Monday. That includes 14 Palestinian children caught up in the conflict.” Israel-Gaza: Fears of war as violence escalates.

+ “Israel is being battered by incessant rocket fire, spreading death, destruction and panic through a widening swath of southern Israel. The IDF is hitting back in Gaza, targeting Hamas and other terror groups’ installations, rocket launch teams, and numerous terror commanders. The battle over the narrative is in full sway, with Hamas bragging of the indiscriminate harm it is wreaking in Israel while simultaneously protesting the Israeli counterstrikes. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza is highlighting what it says are the deaths of children in IDF strikes, while the Israeli army declines to comment on specific incidents but says at least some of the Gaza civilian fatalities, including children, were caused by the terror groups’ own rockets misfiring or landing inside the Strip.” David Horovitz on how so much of this sounds so depressingly familiar.

+ Photos from the scene.

+ Negotiations to oust Netanyahu stall amid Jerusalem crisis. Isn’t that convenient for Bibi…