(UPDATE) GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel and Gaza militants traded heavy fire Thursday (Friday in Manila), the third day of the worst escalation of violence in months, which has killed 29 people in the blockaded Palestinian enclave and one in Israel.
Air strikes by the Israeli army since Tuesday have killed fighters as well as civilians, including several children, said officials in the crowded coastal territory.
Rocket fire from the Gaza Strip killed one person in the central Israeli city of Rehovot and injured at least two others, Israeli police said. Three others sustained shrapnel injuries elsewhere in Israel.
Cairo was mediating efforts toward a truce between Israel and the Islamic Jihad militant group, while European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for "an immediate comprehensive ceasefire."
The United States stopped short of a clear call for a truce, but State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said the casualties were "tragic and heartbreaking," while urging that steps be "taken to ensure that violence is reduced."
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said "the bloodletting must end now," and the UN warned of "a negative impact on an already difficult humanitarian situation in Gaza."
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A source close to Islamic Jihad later disclosed that "a final formula for a ceasefire" was said to be under discussion in Egypt.
The Israeli army, however, said just before midnight (2100 GMT) that it was continuing to strike Islamic Jihad targets.
Gaza militants have fired 620 rockets at Israel since Wednesday, the military said, adding that 179 had been intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system.
The army said 25 percent of rockets fired from Gaza fell into the territory itself, killing four people, including three minors. Agence France-Presse (AFP) could not immediately obtain confirmation from Islamic Jihad or Hamas.
Shops in Gaza were shuttered and the streets largely abandoned as Israeli military aircraft circled the territory, where several buildings lay in ruins.
Islamic Jihad confirmed it had lost five military leaders in strikes in recent days, including Ahmed Abu Deka — the deputy of Ali Ghali, commander of a rocket launch unit, who was also killed by Israel on Thursday.
The Israeli army said it had fired at 191 targets across Gaza on Thursday.
The militant Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said four of its fighters had also been killed.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Thursday evening that it had documented 26 dead on the Palestinian side — 13 civilians, seven of them children, as well as four members of armed groups and nine others whose status was not yet determined.
'Wave of escalation'
In Gaza City's Al-Rimal district, Mamoun Radi, 48, said: "We hope that the wave of escalation will end, but we support revenge for the martyrs.
"Israel assassinated a leader of (Islamic) Jihad at dawn today because it does not want calm."
Across southern Israel, sirens wailed intermittently through the night and on Thursday morning.
Ashkelon resident Miriam Keren, 78, said a Gaza rocket had destroyed a workshop and damaged her house.
"All the shrapnel is in the room; the house was shaken very powerfully, the glasses fell, and the walls were damaged," she said.
"Luckily, I have a safe room and I entered it immediately and closed the door.
"This isn't the first time the house was hit but I'm not afraid, neither was I yesterday. You're shocked for a moment, but it's not about fear. It's more unpleasant, very unpleasant."
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