Israel-Gaza fighting spills into second day with air strikes, rockets

Israeli aircraft struck in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired rockets at Israeli cities on Saturday as fighting ran into a second day, ending more than a year of relative calm along the border.

Israel on Friday said it had launched a special operation against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, killing one of its senior commanders in a surprise daytime air-strike on a high-rise building in Gaza City.

The Israeli strikes killed nine more Palestinians, including at least four Islamic Jihad militants and a child, and wounding 79 people, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it had apprehended 19 Islamic Jihad militants in overnight arrest raids.

Palestinian militants fired at least 160 rockets over the border, the military said, some deep into Israel toward the commercial hub Tel Aviv. Most of the missiles were intercepted and a few people were lightly injured when running to shelters.

Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar had begun mediating an end to the violence, according to a Palestinian official with knowledge of the efforts, "but no breakthrough yet", the official said.