Life under fire in the Holy Land
TEL AVIV -- The warning sirens began wailing in Tel Aviv just after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. Yesterday they rang out time and time again across the southern half of Israel -- not just in towns close to the border with the Gaza Strip, but 40 miles away, in Tel Aviv.
CBS News' Holly Williams reports that Wednesday morning's alert came after another night of deadly airstrikes saw Israeli missiles rain down on the Gaza Strip.
Israel's government says it's responding to rocket attacks by terrorists -- and trying to stop them by targeting command centers and rocket launchers used by Hamas, the militant group elected to govern Gaza.
Several Hamas operatives have been killed, but civilians have also been caught up in the bombardment.
Palestinian doctors claim more than two dozen people died yesterday -- several of them children.
Nabil Hamad said his brother was killed as he sat in his own home. It wasn't immediately clear whether his brother, or any other family member, was targeted due to suspected links to Hamas.
"What can I say?" he asked. "We'll leave it up to God."
Instead of stopping the rocket attacks, Palestinian militants are now firing their missiles deeper into Israeli territory.
One Hamas leader said all Israelis are now legitimate targets.
On the outskirts of Tel Aviv, a wedding party was cut short Tuesday by the wail of sirens -- though the rocket was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system.
The Israeli military said one rocket landed 80 miles from Gaza -- the farthest Palestinian militants have ever struck. And there are other signs that the militants are becoming more sophisticated.
Hamas claimed responsibility for an amphibious incursion by sea yesterday, landing a small boat on a beach near an Israeli army base, but all five of the fighters were later killed.
Both Israel and the Palestinian militants say they're being forced by the other side to take their actions -- but both sides are fuelling the violence.
As Williams reports, the Holy Land looks as far as it's ever been from a real, lasting peace.