Israel pounds Gaza from air and sea

Israel is continuing its assault on the Gaza Strip for a fifth straight day, bombarding the Palestinian enclave from both the air and sea.

Medical sources said three children were killed on Sunday. One of them was an 18-month-old baby killed in an air raid east of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Two media buildings were hit, including one housing offices of Hamas TV as well as Britain's Sky and ITN. Several Palestinian journalists were injured.

The Israeli army said eight rockets had been fired from Gaza since midnight, three of which hit Israeli territory.

Israel says it still wants to hit hundreds of Gaza targets as it seeks to stop rockets being fired into Israel.

Sirens have sounded in Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital, for a fourth day.

Gaza has been under attack since Wednesday, when Israel launched a military offensive with the declared goal of deterring Gaza fighters from launching rockets into its territory.

Forty-nine Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 13 children, have been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.

Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba, reporting from Gaza City, said some people who live near the northern and eastern borders with Israel had been leaving their homes to seek shelter with relatives elsewhere.

"But in Gaza City, people are staying in their homes, limiting their movements. They are not sure whether there will be an Israeli ground operation ... Many shops have remained closed."

Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel subsided during the night but resumed in the morning with at least eight rockets fired towards the nearby coastal city of Ashkelon, the Israeli army said.

At least four of them were intercepted by the so-called Iron Dome, Israel's a missile-defence system meant to shoot down rockets and artillery shells fired at populated areas. One person was lightly injured by one of the other rockets, the army said.

"As of now we have struck more than 1,000 targets, so Hamas should do the math over whether it is or isn't worth it to cease fire," Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said over Twitter.

"If there is quiet in the South and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."

Israel said it would keep schools in its south shut on Sunday as a precaution to avoid casualties from rocket strikes reaching as far as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the past few days.

The military said Israeli aircraft had targeted dozens of underground rocket launchers overnight, "causing severe damage to the rocket launching capabilities of Hamas and other terror organisations".

It also confirmed that its navy has shelled Gaza, hitting targets on the northern Gaza shore line.

An Israeli attack on Saturday destroyed the house of a Hamas commander near the Egyptian border.

Israeli aircraft also bombed Hamas government buildings, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.

Hamas remained defiant, with its military spokesman Abu Ubaida insisting that despite Israel's blows the movement "is still strong enough to destroy the enemy".

"This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning," he told a televised news conference.

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said on Saturday there were "some indications" a ceasefire could be reached soon, but he had no firm guarantees.

Morsi told reporters in Cairo his government was in "vigorous" communication with both Israel and the Palestinians.

Egypt, which brokered an informal truce in October that has since collapsed, has said it is working for a new deal after its Prime Minister Hesham Qandil visited Gaza on Friday.

Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal was in Cairo for talks, a senior Hamas official said.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius left Paris on Sunday for Israel "to call on all the parties to stop the escalation and offer France's help to reach an immediate ceasefire," his ministry said.

During his one-day trip, the minister will meet the Israeli authorities and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, his ministry said in a statement.