JERUSALEM -- With rockets raining deep inside Israel, the military pummeled Palestinian targets Wednesday across the Gaza Strip and threatened a broad ground offensive while the first diplomatic efforts to end two days of heavy fighting got underway.
Egypt, which has mediated before between Israel and the Hamas militant group, said it spoke to all sides about ending the violence. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was in touch with Israel to try to lower tensions. And the United Nations chief warned of a situation that "could quickly get beyond anyone's control."
As the Palestinian death toll rose to at least 75, neither side showed any sign of halting their heaviest fighting since an eight-day battle in late 2012.
Israel said it hit more than 300 targets and Hamas positions throughout Gaza, including rocket-launchers, weapons-storage sites and tunnels that it said the group uses to carry out attacks. The military said 74 rockets landed in Israel, including one that reached the northern city of Hadera, the deepest rocket strike ever from Gaza.
"Hamas will pay a heavy price for firing toward Israeli citizens," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "The operation will expand and continue until the fire toward our towns stops and quiet returns."
In the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of committing "genocide" due to the mounting civilian death toll. He said the deaths raised questions about Israel's commitment to peace.
Israel began the offensive Tuesday in response to weeks of rocket launches, and officials said the airstrikes would continue until the firing stops. At least 20 civilians were among the at least 75 deaths reported by the Health Ministry in Gaza. There have been no deaths or serious injuries on the Israeli side.
Thousands of Israeli troops massed near the Gaza border as the possibility of a ground invasion grew larger.
"Despite the fact it will be hard, complicated and costly, we will have to take over Gaza temporarily, for a few weeks, to cut off the strengthening of this terror army," Yuval Steinitz, Israel's intelligence minister, told Israel Radio. "If you ask my humble opinion, a significant operation like this is approaching."
The government has authorized the army to activate up to 40,000 reservists, and Israeli TV stations said Wednesday that about a quarter of those forces had been called up.
A ground offensive in Gaza could lead to heavy civilian casualties on the Palestinian side and trigger strong international criticism, as was the case during one that killed hundreds of Palestinians in 2009. Israeli troops also would be at much greater risk if they enter Gaza's crowded urban landscape, home to 1.8 million people, especially for a long-term presence.
Tal Russo, a former general who retired last year as head of Israel's southern command, said a ground offensive did not guarantee success. "There is no such concept as 'decisive,' and that needs to be understood," he told Channel 10 TV.
Israeli security officials said they have prepared for different scenarios inside Gaza, ranging from a quick pinpoint operation to a full reoccupation of the seaside strip. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.
In the first indication that cease-fire efforts were underway, the office of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he held "extensive contacts with all active and concerned parties" to end the fighting.
His office said the two sides discussed the "critical conditions and the need to stop all military action, and to stop the slide" toward more violence. It called on Israel to protect Palestinian civilians.
Egypt negotiated a cease-fire that ended the 2012 fighting, but the situation has changed since then. At that time, Egypt was led by the Muslim Brotherhood, a regional movement that includes Hamas. After a military coup last year, el-Sissi was elected president, and the new government is far more hostile toward Hamas.
Also Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he spent the day calling Netanyahu, Abbas, el-Sissi and other regional leaders to push the Israelis and Palestinians toward a cease-fire
"This is one of the most critical tests the region has faced in recent years," Ban said at a news conference. "Gaza is on a knife-edge. The deteriorating situation is leading to a downward spiral, which could quickly get beyond anyone's control."
In Washington, the State Department said Kerry spoke by phone with Netanyahu and planned to talk to Abbas to urge both sides to de-escalate the crisis.
Netanyahu confirmed that he spoke to Kerry, Ban and German leader Angela Merkel, but gave no indication the offensive would stop.
"Today I spoke with several world leaders. I appreciated their expressions of strong support for our right and our duty to defend ourselves, and this is what we will continue to do," he said.
Israel's intensified aerial assaults, which its military is calling Operation Protective Edge, began Monday and have demolished dozens of buildings.
Among the latest dead were an 80-year-old woman, an 11-year-old girl, a 14-year-old boy and two other young children. Israel has accused militants of endangering civilians by using homes and other civilian buildings for cover.
Mohammed al-Nuasrah of the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza described a scene of horror after an airstrike flattened a nearby home.
"Four people from the family died, and we're sitting looking for the remains of the kids. One is 3 and one is 4 years old," he said. "These children were just sleeping in their beds. What crime did they commit? Only God can judge you, Israel."
In a statement broadcast on the Al-Jazeera news network, Hamas' exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, called on all Palestinians to resist Israel and urged the international community to put pressure on Israel.
"Yes, our enemy is stronger than us, but we are up to the task of facing them, God willing," he said. "We do not threaten or promise. Our right is to defend our lives."
The longer range of the rockets fired from Gaza has disrupted life across southern and central Israel, where people have been forced to remain close to home, and schools and summer camps have closed.
Besides firing toward Israel's two largest cities, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Hamas also launched a rocket that reached the city of Hadera for the first time. The city, more than 60 miles north of Gaza, was struck in 2006 by missiles fired by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
"We got it from both directions," said Maayan From, a 25-year-old Hadera resident. "Our enemies have developed, and it is getting scary."
The rocket that hit Hadera was a Syrian-made M-302 rocket, said Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, who said Palestinians in Gaza had "tens" more like it.
In March, Israel intercepted a ship in the southern Red Sea, 1,000 miles from Israel, that contained a shipment of M-302s, which were said then to have a range of 100 miles. The Israelis asserted the weapons were bound for Gaza and attributed the shipment to Iran, a supporter of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, a militant group that also has fired advanced rockets. Iran and the militants denied the Israeli assertions.
The Israelis also said Wednesday that they had targeted a senior Islamic Jihad rocket commander, Abdullah Diyfallah, in an airstrike.
Tensions have been rising between Israel and the Palestinians since the June 12 kidnappings of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank. Israel accused Hamas of being behind the abductions but provided no proof.
Israel then cracked down on the group's members in the West Bank and arrested hundreds of people. Hamas, which controls Gaza, responded by stepping up rocket fire.
The situation deteriorated further last week after the bodies of the three were found, followed a day later by the abduction in Jerusalem of a Palestinian teenager who was found burned to death in what Palestinians believe was a revenge attack. Six Jewish Israelis were arrested in the killing.
Adding to the tension, a 15-year-old Palestinian-American cousin of the slain teenager was beaten by Israeli police at a protest. Israel's Justice Ministry said one of the officers would face criminal charges.
Wednesday in Gaza, the mood was grim.
"The situation is very difficult," said Abu Tamer Ajour, speaking on a nearly deserted street in Gaza City. "This aggression came at a very bad time, with no salaries, zero economy."
He said that "Gaza cannot endure more escalation, but this is a battle that was imposed on us," arguing that Israel "always strikes in Gaza, and then says we respond to the rockets. But they strike us with and without rockets."
Another resident, Riad Fawzi, pointed to an empty market, with shops closed on Fehmi Bik street, which is normally bustling during the current Ramadan holiday.
"The situation is very bad," he said, "but I don't expect the conflict will last for long."
He said that "the Jews are not interested in more escalation," because "we are used to this thing, but they can't endure the same way we endure."
Like many ordinary Gazans, he said he hoped the fighting would end in an agreement to bring peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, which would allow better living conditions. U.S.-led peace talks collapsed in April.
"Without a peace deal it will be useless; things will get worse again after a year or two," he said. "We want a lifting of the siege and a truce and peace with them so our children and we can live."
Information for this article was contributed by Josef Federman, Mohammed Daraghmeh, Najib Jobain, Sarah El Deeb, Aya Batrawy, Edith M. Lederer, Ian Deitch and Yousur Alhlou of The Associated Press; by Steven Erlanger, Isabel Kershner, Fares Akram and Rick Gladstone of The New York Times; and by Jonathan Ferziger, Calev Ben-David and Saud Abu Ramadan of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 07/10/2014