No end was in sight to hostilities Thursday as casualties and injuries mounted amid escalating missile fire between the Israeli military and Gaza militants, according to dpa. For the second day in a row, rockets fired by Palestinians reached the seaside metropolis of Tel Aviv, the country's financial capital. Meanwhile, the death toll reached 48 in the Gaza Strip after at least 77 hours of Israeli bombardment. Intense Israeli airstrikes continued overnight throughout the Gaza Strip, where black pillars of smoke have been rising since Israel launched operation Protective Edge before dawn Tuesday, in response to an escalation in rocket attacks from the salient.
