Militants fired more than 200 rockets into southern Israel from Gaza and drew retaliatory fire from Israeli jets after a botched Israeli intelligence mission resulted in the deaths of an Israeli soldier and several Palestinians.
The eruption of violence on Monday threatened to escalate into a fiercer conflict and scupper efforts to find a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist group that has governed the Gaza strip since 2007.
The fighting began when a group of undercover Israeli soldiers were stopped at a checkpoint inside Gaza on Sunday, triggering a gunfight that resulted in the death of the Israeli soldier and seven Palestinians.