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Israel Steps Up Attacks, Gaza Returns Fire
Over the weekend, Israeli air strikes pounded dozens more targets in the Gaza Strip, as Hamas militants launched rockets into southern Israel and toward Tel Aviv. Israel's recent air barrage has targeted individuals and buildings in more densely populated areas, and the civilian death toll is mounting. Local officials in Gaza have placed the death toll at more than 90 since Wednesday. International mediators are working hard to forge a deal that would lead to a truce. However, Israeli forces are still massing on Gaza's border, and Hamas refuses to negotiate while Israel continues its air strikes. Gathered here are images from a weekend of violent exchanges between Israel and Gaza, with no clear indication whether the situation will worsen or reach a cease-fire any time soon
Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, on November 18, 2012. The Israeli military widened its range of targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday to include the media operations of the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers, sending its aircraft to attack two buildings used by both Hamas and foreign media outlets. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Smoke trails are seen as rockets are launched from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel, on November 17, 2012. Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Tel Aviv on Saturday but it was intercepted in mid-air by a newly deployed Israeli anti-missile battery and caused no casualties or damage, police said. (Reuters/Majdi Fathi)
The aftermath of an Israeli missile launched from the Iron Dome air defense system, designed to intercept and destroy incoming short-range rockets and artillery shells, seen from the southern Israeli-Gaza border, after being fired in response to a rocket launched from the nearby Gaza Strip, on November 17, 2012. Over the past 72 hours, the Israeli army says militants have fired more than 600 rockets over the border, of which 404 hit and 245 were intercepted by Iron Dome.
Israeli police explosives experts work atop a roof damaged after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in the southern town of Ofakim, on November 18, 2012.
A Palestinian Christian woman lights a candle during a mass for the children of Gaza in the Church of the Annunciation in the West Bank village of Beit Jala, on November 18, 2012. (Musa Al Shaer/AFP/Getty Images)
An Israeli F-16 jet fighter en route to Gaza Strip, flies over an area where the Iron Dome missile system is deployed near the city of Ashdod, Israel, on November 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli soldiers prepare tanks near the border with the central Gaza Strip, on November 18, 2012. (Reuters/Nir Elias