Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza has now killed at least 48 people, including 14 children, and injured more than 300 more, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry. Israel says at least 15 of the dead were Hamas militants.
"Stop the fire immediately. We're escalating towards a full-scale war," tweeted UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland. "The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now."
Militants in Gaza have fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel since the latest flareup began Monday afternoon, killing five Israeli civilians and injuring more than 200 others, the Israeli military said Wednesday. Around 130 rockets hit Tel Aviv last night, forcing Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion to close.
Many of the rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, but several struck Tel Aviv, setting a bus ablaze and killing one Israeli woman. Thousands of Israelis spent the night in bomb shelters.
In Gaza, which has few bomb shelters and no air defense system, several buildings and apartments were damaged by Israeli airstrikes. One of those strikes brought a multi-story tower block tumbling down. The Israel Defense Forces said the building was a stronghold of Hamas military intelligence and weapons research.
People in Gaza were in a "state of panic" due to the ongoing Israeli bombardment, said Ashraf al-Qidra, the Palestinian health ministry spokesman in Gaza.
Al-Qidra said Israel had deliberately targeted civilian homes and crowded residential neighborhoods, adding that 43% of the victims of strikes in Gaza were children and women.
The Israeli military says it does everything it can to minimize civilian casualties when it is carrying out attacks.
Israel's military said Wednesday that it had killed a number of key Hamas officials in what it described as its "largest strike since 2014."
Omar Shaban, founder and director of PalThink for Strategic Studies, told CNN that Gazans felt trapped. "I am in Gaza now. I am in my home. I cannot get out. Gaza is too small," he told CNN. "You cannot escape from one place to another place."
On Wednesday, Israeli defense minister Benny Gantz said there was currently "no end date" for the military operation against Gaza.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech Tuesday night that the group was ready if Israel ramped operations up further. "If [Israel] wants to escalate, we are ready for it, and if it wants to stop, we're also ready. If they want to remove their hand over Jerusalem, we're ready," he said.
The militants say their offensive is a response to the actions of Israeli police who fired stun grenades inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem -- one of the city's holiest sites -- on Monday morning.
Hundreds of Palestinians went to hospitals for treatment after ensuing clashes with Israeli police. Video showed Palestinians throwing rocks and stones in sustained battles in and around the mosque with police, who fired rubber coated bullets, as well as stun grenades. The violence was the most serious the city has seen in years.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court warned Wednesday that possible war crimes were being committed as the conflict escalated.
"I note with great concern the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in and around Gaza, and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute," Fatou Bensouda said in a statement posted on Twitter. "I echo the call from the international community for calm, restraint and a stop to the violence."
Meanwhile, there is growing concern over violent unrest in a number of towns in Israel with a majority Arab population. On Wednesday, Israel declared a state of emergency in the central city of Lod after a second night of clashes between Jewish and Arab communities, which saw a synagogue set on fire.
A CNN team driving through Lod early Wednesday saw streets strewn with rocks and burnt out cars on the side of roads. "We have lost control of the city and the streets," Lod Mayor Yair Revivo told Israel's Channel 12 News.
In a sign of how seriously Israel's leadership takes the unrest in Lod, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a visit to the city at 2 a.m. Wednesday morning to talk to local leaders.
Israel also said Wednesday it was sending reinforcements to mixed cities to quell the violence.
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