Israel's top military commander, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz said forces were ready to act as needed on Friday as Israel's offensive against Gaza militants entered the fourth day.
Gantz was speaking to reporters from a military base in southern Israel.
"We are in the midst of an assault and we are prepared to expand it as much as is required, to wherever is required, with whatever force will be required and for as long as will be required," said Benny Gantz.
Israel pressed on its Gaza offensive, striking the Hamas-dominated enclave from air and sea, as Palestinian militants kept up rocket attacks deep into the Jewish state.
At least 96 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in the offensive, which Israel says it launched to end persistent rocket attacks on its civilian population, some of which have reached Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities. The salvoes into Israel have caused no fatalities or serious injuries, due in part to interception by Israel's partly-US funded Iron Dome aerial defense system.
One rocket on Friday hit a petrol station in Israel's port city of Ashdod, causing a huge blaze and at least three people were seriously wounded, an ambulance spokesman said.
In Gaza, medical officials said at least 60 civilians, including a four-year-old girl and a boy of five killed on Thursday, were among the 79 Palestinians who have died since the offensive began on Tuesday.
Gaza medical officials said four people were killed in Israeli pre-dawn attacks. The Israeli military said fresh naval and air strikes were launched early, but a spokeswoman gave no further details.
An air strike on a house in Gaza City killed a man described by officials as a doctor and pharmacist. Medics and residents said an Israeli aircraft bombed a three-story house in the southern town of Rafah, killing three people.
The Palestinians said Israeli tanks fired shells east of Rafah, naval forces sent shells into a security compound in Gaza City and aircraft bombed positions near the borders with Egypt and Israel.
Owners of some of the targeted homes received telephoned warnings from Israel to get out. In other cases, so-called "knock-on-the-door" missiles, which do not carry explosive warheads, were first fired as a signal to evacuate. Scenes of families fleeing their homes have played out daily.
Residents said in Friday's attack in Rafah no warning was issued and the victims were asleep when their house was bombed.
Israeli leaders have appeared to hint at a possible invasion by ground forces and some 20,000 army reservists have been mobilized, giving them the means, if they choose, to mount a land offensive.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement on Thursday: "So far the battle is progressing as planned, but we can expect further stages in future. Up to now, we have hit Hamas and the terror organizations hard and as the battle continues we will increase strikes at them."
Netanyahu discussed options with his security cabinet as new air strikes were launched and officials hinted at a ground offensive. There was no word on when or if this might happen.
The last time they undertook such an offensive was in early 2009. Ground troops did not cross into the Strip, one of the world's most densely populated territories, during the last major exchange of rockets and missiles in October 2012.
The Israeli military said more than 470 projectiles have been fired at Israel since Tuesday by Islamist Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza, and by other militant groups.
Some rockets have landed more than 100 km (60 miles) from Gaza. Sirens sounded as far north as the Israeli city of Haifa on Friday, though police said no remnants of rockets, which Hamas said it had fired, were found. The Al-Qassam Brigades declared on Friday that they shelled the Israeli town of Askalan with 5 Qassam rockets.
Hamas' armed wing added that it intends to fire rockets from the Gaza Strip at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion international airport and warned airlines not to fly to Israel's main gateway to the world.
The group, which said it had issued the warning to airlines so that injury to their passengers could be avoided, announced earlier that it had already fired at least one rocket towards the airport on Friday.
Positions:
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Israeli bombardment of Gaza was blocking efforts to patch up relations undermined by a 2010 attack by Israeli commandos on a Turkish ship that had been challenging its blockade of the Palestinian territory.
"We cannot normalize (relations). First, this cruelty must end," Erdogan said during a speech in the central Turkish city of Yozgat.
"As long as this is not done, it is not possible that a normalization of the relations between Turkey and Israel be realized," he added, calling for a ceasefire to resume.
Middle East envoy for the Quartet, Tony Blair voiced concern for the mounting civilian deaths in Gaza and the ongoing rockets aimed at Israel.
"I'm extremely worried about what is happening now. There have been around 100 deaths in Gaza many of them civilians. There is continual rocket fire being aimed indiscriminately at the Israeli population. We've all been trying to call for restraint and de-escalation but the reality I'm afraid right now is that the situation is escalating not deescalating," Blair said from Jerusalem.
US President Barack Obama told Netanyahu by telephone on Thursday that the United States was willing to help negotiate a ceasefire, the White House said.
French President Francois Hollande voiced his concern at the civilian deaths and called for a truce. A spokeswoman for US Secretary of State John Kerry, who like Hollande spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said: "Nobody wants to see a ground invasion."
US-backed Abbas, who is based in the West Bank and entered a power-sharing deal with Hamas in April after years of feuding, has denounced the Israeli offensive.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it is more urgent than ever to avoid another Israeli-Palestinian war and is urging both leaders to show statesmanship and agree to an immediate cease-fire. The U.N. chief, addressing an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, said Thursday the threat of an Israeli ground offensive and "an all-out escalation" in the Gaza Strip is preventable only if Hamas stops firing rockets and mortars into Israel.
Ban again condemned Hamas, which controls Gaza, and Islamic Jihad for a barrage of rockets and mortars. But in a clear message to Israel, Ban said "the excessive use of force and endangering of civilian lives are also intolerable." The secretary-general called for "bold thinking and creative ideas" and urged the world to accelerate efforts to immediately end the conflict.
Lebanon-Israel border:
Lebanese security sources said two rockets were fired into northern Israel on Friday but they did not know who had fired them. Israel responded with artillery fire at the source of the rockets. Israel's chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Motti Almoz, said one rocket fell near Kibbutz Kfar Yuval and that there were no casualties or damage.
REUTERS/LBCI
To watch Rita Khoury's report, please click on the video above.
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