Missile warning sirens are ringing in Tel Aviv and central Israel.
Alert apps and the media indicate this.
For more than an hour, a sustained volley of rockets has been launched by Islamic Jihad from Gaza.
Eight Palestinians, several of them children, were killed tonight in the Gaza Strip in two separate attacks by the Israeli air force, according to the Palestinian news agency Maan.
Israel has so far made no comment.
According to Maan, a raid in the Faluja area resulted in five deaths, and three more Palestinians were killed in a car attack in Gaza City.
The updated budget of the Gaza health ministry speaks of 36 dead and 311 injured since the start of hostilities: it is not clear whether it also includes the latest victims
The two explosions, in Jabalia and in el-Boureij, in which eight Palestinians were killed tonight in the Gaza Strip are attributable to faulty rockets of Islamic Jihad - and not to the Israeli air force.
Israeli public television Kan learned this.
The broadcaster added that in parallel the Israeli air force attacked a militia cell engaged in launching rockets and that in this attack "one or two Palestinians" who were in the immediate vicinity were hit.
"Their condition is not known," added the broadcaster.
Meanwhile, Israel has accepted a truce in Gaza, and the ceasefire could start already in the evening.
This was stated by an Egyptian security source.
"The Israeli side agreed," the source said, adding that Cairo was awaiting the Palestinian response as part of Egypt's mediation efforts three days into the new conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, an Islamic Jihad source says that talks are underway for the truce.
An Israeli source - Haaretz reported - confirmed that the ongoing talks between the parties, mediated by Egypt, provide for a ceasefire for this evening.
Palestinian sources quoted by international media reported that an agreement was reached at 20 (local time) tonight
Operation 'Breaking Dawn' "will continue for as long as necessary," Prime Minister
Yair Lapid
said in the morning .
"We are acting in a targeted and responsible way - he added after thanking the army for his work - to minimize the damage for those who are not involved".
In the early afternoon the anti-missile alarm sirens sounded, for the first time since the start of the conflict, in
Beersheva
at the beginning of the Negev.
As soon as the funeral in Gaza of Khaled Mansour - the high official of the Jihad killed last night by Israel - ended a large volley of missiles from the Strip towards the south of the Jewish state.
Alarm sirens also sounded in Rishon leZion, not far from Tel Aviv.
According to TV both in Beersheva and in Rishon, the missiles were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
The inhabitants of some Jewish areas around the Strip have been ordered to enter the shelters.
Gaza City, an Israeli missile hits the buildings
The Farnesina is following with great concern the escalation in Gaza
and the reports of victims among the Palestinian population.
Italy strongly condemns the launching of rockets into Israeli territory and reaffirms Israel's right to guarantee the safety of its citizens.
The parties are urged to exercise restraint to avoid an expansion of hostilities which would cause further casualties and suffering to civilians.
This new wave of violence - it is emphasized - is yet another confirmation of the need to relaunch diplomatic efforts to reach a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
At the start of the third day of fighting, the updated toll released by the Gaza Ministry of Health is 29 dead and more than 250 wounded.
This was reported by the Palestinian news agency Maan.
This toll was made known with the completion of rescue operations in a building in Rafah (in the southern Strip) destroyed in the fighting.
In that building, Maan points out, the bodies of eight people, including three women, were recovered.
Previously, the ministry had announced that the death toll had risen to 32 and that 215 were injured.
Since the start of the 'Breaking Dawn' operation in Gaza, Islamic Jihad has fired 580 rockets at Israel.
120 of them fell within the Strip.
This was stated by the Israeli military radio.
According to the broadcaster, the Iron Dome defense batteries intercepted 96% of the rockets directed towards inhabited locations in Israel.
Still other rockets have fallen in open areas, or into the sea.
Israel has so far attacked 140 targets in the Gaza Strip.
Among these, a military tunnel of Islamic Jihad.
He also killed two military commanders of that organization: Tayassir al-Jabari, commander of the northern zone of the Strip, and Khaled Mansour, commander of the southern zone.
ANSA agency
Big Brother contestants in Jerusalem in the rocket bunker from Gaza - Politics
Rockets launched this morning by Islamic Jihad from Gaza to the Jerusalem metropolitan area also forced local 'Big Brother' competitors to run into the shelter.
(HANDLE)
