Rockets pound Israel after militants killed

Hamas militants have launched dozens of rockets at Israel after Israeli air strikes killed senior commanders and felled a multi-storey building in Gaza. Reports say several locations in southern Israel were hit, killing a young child in Sderot.

The escalation of the fighting, which began on Monday, has prompted the UN to warn of a "full-scale war". At least 65 people in Gaza, including 14 children, and seven people in Israel have been killed since then.

The fighting erupted after weeks of rising Israeli-Palestinian tension in East Jerusalem which culminated in clashes at a holy site revered by Muslims and Jews. Further violence in Israeli areas with mixed Jewish and Arab populations led to the arrests of more than 374 people on Wednesday evening, Israeli police said, and 36 officers being injured.

There were reports in Israeli media of both Jewish and Arab individuals being attacked by mobs in Israeli towns and cities.

They include a Jewish man who suffered injuries at the hands of Arabs in the city of Acre, and an Arab man who was dragged out of his car and beaten by a mob of right-wing Jews in Bat Yam.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking late on Wednesday night, said he planned to send in military forces to help police maintain order in cities ruptured by violence.

Mr Netanyahu said the attacks in recent days amounted to "anarchy".

"Nothing can justify an Arab mob assaulting Jews, and nothing can justify a Jewish mob assaulting Arabs," he said in a video statement, as reported by the Times of Israel. Palestinian militants have been firing rockets into Israel since Monday night, and Israel has responded by hitting targets in the territory.

Hundreds of air strikes and rocket attacks have been carried out. The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that more than 360 people have been injured there since the conflict began, as well as the 65 who have died.

Mr Netanyahu said the government would use all its strength to protect Israel from enemies on the outside and rioters on the inside. But the Palestinian Authority condemned Israel's "military aggression" in a tweet, saying it was "traumatizing an already beleaguered population of 2 million people".