Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike hit Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station in the Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. The station went off the air after the airstrike. Minutes earlier, it had halted its programming and been broadcasting a still image of its logo after the building was hit by a warning missile. Shortly after, three loud explosions were heard and the screen turned black. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa)</s>By AFP - Nov 13,2018 - Last updated at Nov 13,2018

A bus set ablaze after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, at the Israel-Gaza border near the kibbutz of Kfar Aza, on Monday (AFP photo)

GAZA — Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinians on Monday after a barrage of rocket fire towards its territory from the enclave, as renewed violence threatened to derail efforts to restore calm.

Israel said it had so far struck more than 20 sites in response to some 80 launches from the Hamas-run territory, reportedly rockets and mortars.

Missile defences had intercepted a number of the rockets, the military said.

The forces said an Israeli bus was hit by fire from the Gaza Strip. Medics reported one person severely wounded.

Medics also said six people from the southern Israeli city of Sderot were lightly wounded.

Israeli forces said a rocket hit a house in Netivot, another southern Israeli town.

Gaza's health ministry said three Palestinians were killed in the Israeli strikes.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine group said two were of its members.

Hamas, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire on behalf of all Palestinian groups in Gaza, saying it was in revenge for a deadly Israeli military operation late Sunday.

On Sunday, a clash erupted during an Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip that killed seven Palestinians, including a local commander for Hamas' armed wing, and an Israeli police officer.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to Paris and rushed home as tensions rose, and on Monday convened a meeting of security chiefs.

Israel had stressed its covert operation on Sunday was an intelligence-gathering mission and "not an assassination or abduction", but Hamas strongly denounced it and vowed revenge.

Israel signalled that Sunday’s mission did not go as planned and resulted in the clash, which Palestinian officials said included Israeli air strikes.

In the immediate aftermath of the clash, Israel said it identified 17 launches — likely rockets or mortars — towards its territory from Gaza, with three intercepted by missile defences. No injuries were reported.

Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, said the Israeli special forces team had infiltrated near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip in a civilian car.

Al Qassam agents stopped it and wanted to search it, realised it was an Israeli operation and confronted them, it said in a statement.

An exchange of fire followed in which local Al Qassam commander Nour Baraka was killed along with another member, it said.

The car then attempted to flee and Israeli aircraft provided covering fire.

An Israeli helicopter landed near the fence and took away the special forces troops, according to Al Qassam.

Israeli forces spokesman Jonathan Conricus declined to comment on Al Qassam account “because of the sensitive nature of the operation”.

Israel provided few details on Sunday’s operation, saying it was carried out by special forces and resulted in an “exchange of fire”.

A funeral was held for the seven Palestinians on Monday attended by thousands, including masked Al Qassam members carrying rifles, some firing into the air.

On the Israeli side of the border, residents said they had stayed close to shelters throughout the night.

“I was sitting in my living room and around 10pm or 11pm, I suddenly heard the sound of helicopter gunships firing,” said Gadi Yarkoni, head of a regional council in the area and a resident of Nirim Kibbutz.

“It was right above the village I’m living in. It was very unpleasant.”

The clashes came after months of deadly unrest along the Gaza-Israel border had appeared to be calming.

Recent weeks have seen Israel allow Qatar to provide the Gaza Strip with millions of dollars in aid for salaries as well as fuel to help ease an electricity crisis.

Before the flare-up, Netanyahu had defended his decision to allow Qatar to transfer the cash to Gaza despite criticism from within his own government over the move, saying he wanted to avoid a war if it was not necessary.

Naftali Bennett, Netanyahu’s education minister and right-wing rival, compared the cash flow to “protection money paid to criminals”.

Israel and Palestinians in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and recent months have raised fears of a fourth.

Deadly clashes have accompanied major protests along the Gaza-Israel border that began on March 30.

At least 230 Palestinians have since been killed by Israeli fire, the majority shot during protests and clashes, while others died in tank fire or air strikes.

Two Israeli forces personelle have been killed in that time.

Egyptian and UN officials have been mediating between Israel and Hamas in an effort to reach a long-term truce deal.</s>GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Palestinians in Gaza fired scores of rockets and mortar bombs into southern Israel on Monday and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes, a day after an Israeli incursion prompted deadly fighting in the enclave.

Three Palestinian gunmen were killed in the air attacks, their factions said. Warplanes also destroyed the premises of Hamas’s Al-Aqsa Television, the Israeli military said.

On the Israeli side of the border, a guided missile wrecked a bus, wounding a soldier, and shelling struck several homes as residents fled to shelters, authorities said.

The flare-up cast a new cloud over efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations to broker a long-term ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the dominant Islamist group in Gaza.

The enemies have fought three wars in the past decade. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped to reach an “arrangement” to avoid another conflict and ease Israeli-blockaded Gaza’s economic hardships.

The United States, whose attempt to seal a wider Israeli-Palestinian peace stalled in 2014, condemned Hamas.

“We stand with Israel as it defends itself against these attacks,” U.S. envoy Jason Greenblatt tweeted. “This violence prevents any real help for the people of Gaza.”

In southern Israel, interceptor missiles streaked through the sky and sirens sounded during what the military said were around 300 rocket and mortar launches from Gaza.

Israeli medics said at least 10 people were hurt.

In Gaza, medics said three people were wounded.

Al-Aqsa TV’s employees had evacuated their office in advance after phoned-in warnings from the Israeli military, and broadcasts resumed after a brief outage.

The frontier had been quiet earlier in the day after a botched Israeli undercover operation in Gaza led to fighting that killed a Hamas commander, six other Palestinian militants and an Israeli colonel.

“In response to yesterday’s crime, the joint command of Palestinian factions announce the beginning of bombardment of the enemy’s settlements with scores of rockets,” Hamas said in a statement.

Late on Sunday, Palestinians shelled Israel in response to the Israeli incursion and air strikes, which Hamas said were intended to cover the retreat of the Israeli commandos’ car.

The military said a lieutenant-colonel had been killed in the raid and another officer wounded.

Violence has flared regularly along the Israel-Gaza border since Palestinians began protests on March 30 to demand rights to land lost to Israel in the 1948 war of its creation.

Israeli gunfire has killed more than 220 Palestinians since the start of the demonstrations, which have included breaches of the border fence.

In an apparent attempt to defuse tensions, Israel’s military spokesman said the special forces had not been dispatched to assassinate Hamas commanders, a tactic that led to wider conflict in the past and which has largely been abandoned.

Israeli media reports suggested the raid was mounted to gather intelligence.</s>An explosion is seen during an Israeli air strike on Hamas's television station, in Gaza City November 12, 2018. REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes bombed the studios of Hamas’s television station in the Gaza Strip on Monday during a surge in cross-border fighting, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

There was no immediate word of casualties in the air strike on Al-Aqsa Television, which destroyed the premises in Gaza City and damaged nearby buildings.

Many local residents had fled after Israel phoned in calls to evacuate and launched at least five non-exploding missiles nearby as warnings, witnesses said.

Al-Aqsa Television - named after a major mosque Jerusalem - said it would resume broadcasts soon.</s>GAZA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Israeli warplanes bombed the studios of Hamas's television station in the Gaza Strip on Monday during a surge in cross-border fighting, Palestinian officials and witnesses said.

There was no immediate word of casualties in the air strike on Al-Aqsa Television, which destroyed the premises in Gaza City and damaged nearby buildings.

Many local residents had fled after Israel phoned in calls to evacuate and launched at least five non-exploding missiles nearby as warnings, witnesses said.

Al-Aqsa Television - named after a major mosque Jerusalem - said it would resume broadcasts soon. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Editing by William Maclean)</s>Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike hit Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station in the Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. The station went off the air after the airstrike. Minutes earlier, it had halted its programming and been broadcasting a still image of its logo after the building was hit by a warning missile. Shortly after, three loud explosions were heard and the screen turned black. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa)</s>An Israeli air strike destroyed Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV building in the Gaza Strip on Monday after a series of warning shots, AFP journalists reported, drawing threats of a harsh response from Palestinian militants.

The strike came as violence again flared between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Hamas confirmed that the building in Gaza City was destroyed, while Islamic Jihad vowed to respond to Israel's action.

No injuries were immediately reported and workers were believed to have evacuated after the warning shots.

The station began broadcasting again a short while after the strike from an undisclosed location.

Israel's military acknowledged hitting the building, saying in a statement "it contributes to Hamas's military actions, including by providing operational messaging to militants, directing and explicitly calling for terror activities against Israel, and providing guidance on how to carry out such terror activities".

It said the station is "owned and operated by Hamas".

Earlier Monday, Israel's aircraft struck Gaza, killing three Palestinians and wounding nine after a barrage of rocket fire into its territory from the enclave.

The flare-up came after a deadly Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip on Sunday that left Hamas vowing revenge.

The army said an Israeli bus was hit by an anti-tank missile from the Gaza Strip, causing several injuries. A soldier was severely wounded, it said.

Medics reported at least six other Israelis wounded with a number of houses and civilian buildings struck by rockets.

Joint statements from Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire and the missile attack on the bus, which it said was being used by Israeli soldiers.

They said the rocket fire was in revenge for the deadly Israeli operation late Sunday.</s>Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike hit Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV station in the Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. The station went off the air after the airstrike. Minutes earlier, it had halted its programming and been broadcasting a still image of its logo after the building was hit by a warning missile. Shortly after, three loud explosions were heard and the screen turned black. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa) (Hatem Moussa)</s>The Israeli military has bombed the studios of the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa television station, Palestinian officials and witnesses have confirmed. Footage of a huge blast has appeared online.A video posted on Twitter shows huge flames erupting over the Al-Aqsa TV station. Screams can also be heard in the background."The military occupation forces bomb and destroy the Al-Aqsa satellite headquarters in Gaza."The station was targeted as part of a series of airstrikes on Gaza by Israel on Monday. Those strikes were in response to a barrage of rockets launched from Gaza, and follow several days of tense cross-border flare-ups."The maximum space building after its destruction by shelling the occupation."Al-Aqsa is the official Hamas-run television channel. Its programming includes news promoting Hamas, as well as children's programming and religiously inspired entertainment.The bombing happened after the Israeli military launched at least five non-exploding missiles nearby, warning Palestinians to evacuate, according to sources cited by Reuters.</s>The Israeli military said some 300 rockets were fired by the Palestinian militants throughout Monday into Israel’s southern territories. In response to the Palestinian shelling, the Israeli military attacked over 70 militant targets in the Gaza Strip from the ground and the air. According to local doctors, three Gaza Strip residents died in Israeli strikes. One of the Israeli airstrikes specifically targeted the Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV station.

“The Foreign Ministry of Lebanon condemns the aggression to which the Gaza Strip and innocent civilians are exposed. The ministry calls on the international community to take immediate action to stop air raids and the horrendous bombardments of residential areas. The Ministry expresses its condolences to the families of the innocent victims of this aggression, ” the ministry’s said in a statement, obtained by Sputnik, late on Monday,

READ MORE: IDF Planes Launch Strikes in Gaza After Israeli Bus Hit by Mortar Fire (VIDEO)

Last week, Israel carried out an undercover raid targeting a Hamas commander in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, leaving at least seven Palestinians dead, according to reports.

The relations between the Israelis and the Palestinians near the Gaza border have been increasingly tense since 2005. The Gaza Strip is one of the two parts of the partially recognized State of Palestine, which until 2005 was Israeli territory. Palestinian protesters continue regular clashes with the Israeli troops on the border, while the Israeli side accuses Gaza of ongoing shelling.
The Israeli Air Force bombs Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV's headquarters in Gaza City.