Israeli planes renewed air strikes in Gaza early on Saturday and Hamas militants responded by firing rockets into Israel as their battle entered a fifth night and US and Arab diplomats sought an end to the violence.
Palestinian medics said at least four people were killed in one of several air strikes in northern Gaza. Residents said Israeli naval boats fired shells from the Mediterranean though none may have hit the strip.
The Palestinian religious affairs ministry said Israeli planes destroyed a mosque, with a military spokesman saying the army was checking the report.
Sirens sounded in two major southern Israeli cities warning of incoming fire from Gaza. Hamas claimed responsibility for launching rockets.
With no sign of an end to the fighting, casualties spread further afield, with Palestinians reporting 11 killed in the West Bank amid clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.
At least 132 people have been killed in Gaza since Monday, including 32 children and 21 women, and 950 others wounded, Palestinian medical officials said.
Hamas said a woman and a boy were among four people killed in an Israeli air strike that hit a home belonging to the Abu Hattab family in Gaza City's Beach refugee camp. The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike.
Among eight dead in Israel were a soldier patrolling the Gaza border and six civilians, including two children, Israeli authorities said.
Palestinians gather at destroyed houses as cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants continues, in the northern Gaza Strip. Source: AAP
Ahead of a session of the UN Security Council on Sunday to discuss the situation, Biden administration envoy Hady Amr, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Israel and Palestinian Affairs, flew in on Friday.
The US Embassy in Jerusalem said the aim was "to reinforce the need to work toward a sustainable calm."
Israel launched day-long attacks on Friday to destroy what it said were several kilometres of tunnels, launch sites and weapons manufacturing warehouses used by Hamas militants in an effort to halt the rocket attacks.
Across central and southern Israel, from small towns bordering Gaza to metropolitan Tel Aviv and southern Beersheba, people have endured sirens wailing, radio and TV broadcast interruptions and the beeps of cellphones bearing red alerts that send them rushing for cover.
Diplomatic flurry
Egypt was leading regional efforts to secure a ceasefire. Cairo had tried to push for both sides to cease fire from midnight on Friday, two Egyptian security sources said, with Egypt leaning on Hamas and others, including the United States, trying to reach an agreement with Israel.
The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan discussed efforts to end the Gaza confrontation and to prevent "provocations" in Jerusalem, Egypt's foreign ministry said.
"The talks have taken a real and serious path on Friday," a Palestinian official said. "The mediators from Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations are stepping up their contacts with all sides in a bid to restore calm, but a deal hasn't yet been reached."
The United Arab Emirates on Friday called for a ceasefire and negotiations while offering condolences to all victims of the fighting, citing the promise of September accords that made the UAE and Bahrain the first Arab states in a quarter century to establish formal ties with Israel.
Rockets are launched from Gaza City towards Israel early on 15 May, 2021. Source: AFP via Getty Images
Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza, launched the rocket attacks on Monday, in retaliation for Israeli police clashes with Palestinians near al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site, in East Jerusalem.
The Israeli military said more than 2,000 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since the start of the conflict, around half of them intercepted by missile defence systems and 350 fell into the Gaza Strip.
