Israel pounds Gaza Strip targets

This followed the deaths on Monday of two Israelis after rockets were fired from Gaza. More rockets were reported to have hit Israel on Tuesday.

A media centre in Gaza City and a workshop in the Nusseirat refugee camp were hit in the Israeli air strikes.

Tanks and armoured bulldozers then pushed into the town of Beit Hanoun.

Palestinian witnesses said a 25-year-old man was killed as about two dozen tanks and bulldozers moved in. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The Palestinian sources spoke of an intense barrage of machine-gun fire preceding the Israeli advance.

Media hit

Three missiles hit a multi-storey building in Gaza City housing a BBC office and other media outlets, which were apparently unoccupied at the time.

Two people were injured in the attack on the media centre and the empty metal workshop in Nusseirat refugee camp was destroyed, Palestinian witnesses said.

The BBC's Alan Johnston reports from Gaza City that people there had been braced for Israeli retaliation after the attacks on Sderot.

Close to midnight, a drone aircraft could be heard circling above the city, our correspondent says.

Soon afterwards, there was the sound of at least one helicopter in the sky and then came a series of explosions as missiles were unleashed.

The missiles slammed into a lower floor of the media building, sending white smoke streaming up the tower block and high into the night sky.

An Israeli military spokesman quoted by AFP news agency said that Monday night's air strikes had targeted Palestinian militants and their allies.

The Nusseirat workshop had been used by Hamas, the source said, and the media housed "the headquarters of an organisation that incites [anti-Israeli] hatred and is in constant contact with terrorists".

Attack on Israel

A three-year-old boy was one of the two Israelis killed in Sderot on Monday when two rockets launched from Gaza exploded near a kindergarten. At least nine other people were injured.

Militants often fire rockets into Israel from Gaza but this was the first time they had killed Israelis.

Palestinian militant groups Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades both separately claimed responsibility for the attack.

They said they were avenging the deaths of leaders and activists killed by Israel, including seven militants shot dead in the West Bank over the weekend.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3848593.stm