Ahmed Zakot / Reuters
Smoke rises over Gaza after Israeli strikes on Sunday.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
Updated at 6:45 a.m. ET: TEL AVIV, Israel?- Israel was prepared to substantially broaden its operation in the Gaza strip, the country's prime minister said on Sunday.?
"The Israel Defense Forces have attacked more than 1,000 terror targets in the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting. "We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation."?
He gave no specifics and made no mention of the possibility of a ground offensive.?
Also on Sunday, at least one rocket fired from Gaza was shot down by Israel's Iron Dome air shield, witnesses and officials said. ?Israeli officials told NBC News that there was one rocket fired at the country's commercial capital, Tel Aviv. Previous reports had put the number of rockets at two.
According to NBC staff in Tel Aviv, sirens sounded at about 10:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. ET). NBC's Paul Goldman saw at least one rocket?being intercepted by Israel's anti-rocket defense system over the center of Tel Aviv.
'Some indications' Hamas-Israeli truce is possible, Egypt says
"I was taking cover and heard a huge bang," Goldman said. "(I) looked up and saw the explosion in the air above me. I could smell the fire."
Gaza's Hamas militants said they launched two Iranian-designed Fajr-5 rockets at Tel Aviv, which has come under several such salvos since cross-border fighting with the Palestinian enclave erupted on Wednesday.?
NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports from Gaza City, where the streets remain empty as Palestinians brace for overnight air strikes as part of Israel's intense aerial campaign.
Israel, meanwhile, continued bombing Palestinian militant targets in Gaza from air and sea, preparing for a possible ground invasion though Egypt saw "some indications'' of a truce ahead."
"If there is quiet in the South and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack,"?Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe?Yaalon said over Twitter.?
How Israel's 'Iron Dome' intercepts incoming rockets in Gaza conflict
Israel's strikes were indeed causing widespread damage, NBC News'?Ayman?Mohyeldin said from Gaza.
"These strikes are portrayed as precision strikes, but they are anything but that given how densely populated the area is," he said.?
Forty-eight Palestinians, about half of them civilians, including 13 children, have been killed in Israel's raids, Palestinian officials said. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.
Shelling from the sea
Overnight, six journalists were wounded in Gaza City when Israeli warplanes hit a television station,?according?to Agence France-Presse.?Reuters said witnesses identified the station as al Quds, which Israel sees as pro-Hamas.?Sky News reported that around 5 a.m. local time, two missiles?hit the building that houses its studios and offices.?Al-Arabiya also said?that its offices had been hit.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the strike had targeted a rooftop "transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity."?
Israel unleashed intensive air strikes on Wednesday, killing the commander of the Hamas Islamist group that governs Gaza and spurns peace with Israel. Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and press Hamas into stopping cross-border rocket fire that has plagued Israeli border towns for years.
Air raids continued past midnight into Sunday, with warships shelling from the sea.?
'Some indications' Hamas-Israeli truce is possible, Egypt says
Two other predawn attacks on houses in the Jabalya refugee camp killed two children and wounded 13 other people, medical officials said.
NBC's Martin Fletcher and Richard Engle report from Tel Aviv and Gaza, where violence is ramping up with Palestinians firing rockets into Israel and Israel's military attacking Hamas symbols of power such as the prime minister's office and police headquarters.
These attacks followed a defiant statement by Hamas military spokesman Abu Ubaida, who told a news conference: "This round of confrontation will not be the last against the Zionist enemy and it is only the beginning.''
The masked gunman dressed in military fatigues insisted that despite Israel's blows Hamas "is still strong enough to destroy the enemy."
Truce?
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said in Cairo as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees.''
Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which?unraveled?with recent violence.
Key players in the Israel-Gaza cross-border conflict
A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope,'' but it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.
In Jerusalem, an Israeli official declined to comment on the negotiations. Military commanders said Israel was prepared to fight on to achieve a goal of halting rocket fire from Gaza, which has plagued Israeli towns since late 2000, when failed peace talks led to the outbreak of a Palestinian uprising.
NBC's Mike Viqueira and Martin Fletcher report on the latest developments in the ongoing crisis in the Middle East and each weigh in on what role the US would play in a possible ground offensive by Israel into Gaza.
Diplomats at the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to visit Israel and Egypt in the coming week to push for an end to the fighting.
Ground offensive
Israel, with tanks and artillery positioned along the frontier, said it was still weighing a ground offensive.?
Israeli cabinet ministers decided on Friday to more than double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza offensive to 75,000 and around 16,000 reservists have already been called up.
Asked by reporters whether a ground operation was possible, Major-General Tal Russo, commander of the Israeli forces on the Gaza frontier, said: "Definitely.''
Rockets from Gaza fired on Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
?We have a plan. ... It will take time. We need to have patience. It won't be a day or two,'' he added.
A possible move into the densely populated Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favoured to win a January election.
The last Gaza war, a three-week Israeli blitz and invasion over the New Year of 2008-09, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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