Israel and Palestinian factions fail to reach cease fire

A mortar shell launched from the Gaza Strip directly hit an Israeli house in the southern city of Ashdod Monday, damaging nearby cars and stores and causing two Israelis minor injuries.

The exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza militants entered the fourth day with no signs of abating Monday.Schools in southern Israel have been forced to stop classes since last Friday when the conflict started, with the continuous ban on assembly and other public events.

"We're trying to reduce very difficult situation for our public itself to balance between the routine time and emergency and, therefore we decide not to allow, for example, the students or the children to go to school. But on the other hand, we allow their parents to go to work," said Israel Home Front Command Spokesman Gili Shenhar.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Iran for being the supporter of the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and said if necessary, the Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip would be expanded.

Israel expressed its satisfaction with the Iron Dome anti-missile system which is said to succeed in downing the majority of the rockets in the current conflict.Up to Monday evening local time, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip had fired over 30 rockets and mortar shells into Israel while the Israeli army had carried out several rounds of air attacks on a total of 9 targets and areas in the Gaza Strip.

Residents in southern Israel close to the Gaza Strip heard air defense alarms sound frequently while Beersheba, Ashkelon, Ashdod and other main cities suffered rocket attack.The Israeli Air Force aircraft also attacked the arms factory, arsenals and mainly Palestinian militants who fired rockets.

The Israeli army reported that more than 140 rockets had been fired at Israeli towns since the beginning of the conflict.According to Palestinian medical sources, the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip had killed over 20 Palestinians and injured 70 others.

Friday's Israeli aerial attack on Gaza City that killed two Palestinian militants, one of them a senior member of the pro-Hamas Popular Resistance Committee, had outraged several militants groups in the Gaza Strip.