More than 50 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded in the four days of unrelenting Israeli assaults. Egyptian officials are working on securing a truce between Israel and the Palestinian factions, which could help avert a war both sides say they are prepared to fight. NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin reports.
By NBC News staff and wire reports
Updated at 11:44 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 as its military planes continued to bomb targets in Gaza City.
"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.?
Palestinian medical officials said Sunday at least 10 civilians, including women and young children, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City.?
Meanwhile, President Barack Obama said?he fully supported Israel's right to defend itself and called for an end to the firing of missiles into Israel by militants inside Gaza in order for a peace process to go ahead.
"There's no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders," Obama said at a press conference in Thailand during a Southeast Asian tour. "We are fully supportive of Israel's right to defend itself."?
President Barack Obama spoke on the unrest in the Middle East while on a trip to Asia. The president's trip is meant to put a focus on foreign policy, with the president making a tour of the region, including Myanmar and Cambodia. NBC's Chuck Todd reports from Bangkok.
America's 'Pacific president'? Obama opens first post-election trip with visit to Thailand
'Huge bang'
At least two rockets fired from Gaza toward Tel Aviv, Israel's?commercial?capital, were shot down Sunday by Israel's Iron Dome air shield, witnesses and officials said.
NBC's Paul Goldman saw at least one missile being intercepted by Israel's anti-rocket defense system over the center of the city.
'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."
Israel 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 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.?
A strike on Sunday flattened a two-story building of the Daloo family, killing at least 10 people, Palestinian medical officials said, according to The Associated Press.
Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said four women and four small children are among the dead.
It was not immediately clear what the target of the airstrike was.
Al-Kidra said the deaths brought to 66 the number of Palestinians killed in Israel's Gaza offensive, including 32 civilians.
More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three people and injuring dozens.
Journalists wounded
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."?
'Some indications' Hamas-Israeli truce is possible, Egypt says
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.
In Cairo, as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders,?Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi said 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, Maj.-Gen. 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.
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.
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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