Wednesday 09 July 2014 16.38 Palestinian sources in Gaza say at least 43 people have been killed in bombing raids by Israel.
An 80-year-old woman and a father and son were among those killed in the Israeli strikes and around 250 people have been injured.
Defence for Children International Palestine has said at least seven children have killed since the offensive began yesterday.
Missiles from Israel's Iron Dome defence system shot into the sky to intercept rockets launched, for the second straight day, at Tel Aviv, the country's commercial capital.
Other communities near Tel Aviv in central Israel and in the south, closer to Gaza, were also targeted.
In the longest-range attack a rocket hit near Zichron Yaakov, a town 115km north of Gaza.
The military said 48 rockets struck Israel today, and Iron Dome intercepted 14 others.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that Israel had yet to decide on whether or not it will initiate a ground offensive against Hamas.
The military said it had bombarded 550 Hamas sites, including 60 rocket launchers and 11 homes of senior Hamas members. It described those dwellings as command centres.
Palestinian officials said at least 25 houses were either destroyed or damaged and not all belonged to militants.
It is the second day of a military operation dubbed Operation Protective Edge.
No Israeli fatalities or serious injuries were reported.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of committing "genocide" in Gaza.
"It's genocide - the killing of entire families is genocide by Israel against our Palestinian people," he told a crisis meeting of the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"What's happening now is a war against the Palestinian people as a whole and not against the (militant) factions.
"We know that Israel is not defending itself, it is defending settlements, its main project," said Mr Abbas.
The deadliest strike took place shortly after midnight when a missile hit a house in the northern town of Beit Hanun, killing a senior Islamic Jihad commander, and five of his family members, including two women and two children.
Israeli General Moti Almoz said the Islamist movement has been "forced into a corner" and was trying to launch attacks on multiple fronts.
"Last night, Hamas started to unveil its surprises," he said referring to an attempted attack by sea and the barrage of long-range rockets.
"Hamas was trying to surprise and find the weak points and penetrate Israel by sea or through tunnels; these incidents were thwarted very successfully by the IDF," he said.
Hamas's armed wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades claimed the rocket fire, saying it had launched four M75 rockets at Israel's commercial capital.
Palestinian rocket barrages have sent Israelis racing for bomb shelters, with radio stations interrupting regular broadcasts to announce where sirens have sounded.
But the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange seemed untroubled, ending the day with shares slightly higher.
Interior Minister Gidon Saar, a member of security cabinet, said the military had been given orders to "significantly" expand the campaign.
"We didn't limit the campaign in terms of time, in fact we ordered the IDF to significantly broaden the attacks on Hamas and to do everything to return the quiet and ensure a significant blow to Hamas and the terror organisations in Gaza," he told the radio.
Israel, he said, was going into the widening operation with its "eyes very much open".
"We're ready for every possibility, including a ground operation if necessary, although it's not going to be the first step.
"But there is a readiness for that and that's why we ordered the call-up of 40,000 reserve soldiers," he said.
Israel would not stop until it had dealt a decisive blow to the militant groups operating out of Gaza, he said.
"Hamas is firing, and it must first of all stop, but we won't be satisfied with just that without a very, very significant and broad blow to Hamas and the entire terror infrastructure in Gaza," Mr Saar added.
While threatening an "earthquake" of escalation against Israel, Hamas said it could restore calm if Israel halted the Gaza offensive, once again committed to a 2012 ceasefire and freed the prisoners it detained in the West Bank last month.
Jordan calls for immediate halt to air strikes
Meanwhile, Jordan, one of just two Arab countries to have signed a peace treaty with Israel, has demanded an immediate halt to deadly Israeli air raids against Gaza.
Government spokesman Mohammad Momani said that the raids that killed more than 20 Palestinians in purported response to rocket fire that has killed no one in Israel were "barbaric".
Jordan "condemns the military aggression that Israel has launched in the Gaza Strip" and calls for "its immediate halt", Mr Momani said.
He said the "barbaric aggression" had "negative repercussions on the Gaza Strip and the whole region".
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Eamon Gilmore has condemned the escalation in violence and civilian deaths.
He said: "I condemn unreservedly the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel which pose such a grave threat to the population.
"I equally condemn the mounting civilian casualties, including reportedly women and children, resulting from Israeli air strikes against Gaza."
He added: "Both the people of Gaza and of Israel have the right to live in peace and security and without the threat of indiscriminate violence being visited upon them."
The minister also recommended that any Irish citizens currently in the region or travelling there should register with his department.
He said those thinking about travelling should check the travel advice on the DFA website and Irish people in the region should exercise extreme caution.
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