JNN 17 Nov 2012 Gaza : Egypt’s Prime minister visited the besieged Gaza Strip on Friday in the midst of an Israeli offensive there, calling for an end to the aggression, as Palestinian rocket squads aimed at Tel Aviv for a second straight day.Palestinian fighters have downed an Israeli warplane flying over the Gaza Strip as retaliatory rocket attacks from the enclave continue to sound alarms across Israel.

Sirens wailed across Israel’s main city moments before an explosion was heard, but police said the rocket appeared to have fallen into the sea, The Associated Press reported.

Israel said it halted its incessant air attacks in Gaza during the brief visit of Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil, though the Islamic resistance movement Hamas said three airstrikes hit the coastal territory during that period. Resistance fighters, meanwhile, fired off more than 60 rockets after Qandil arrived in Gaza.

Israeli news networks said it was the first time rockets had been fired at Tel Aviv since the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when it was hit by Iraqi Scud missiles.

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip also struck an uninhabited area outside of Jerusalem (Beit-ul-Moqaddas), causing no damage or injuries, the Israeli army said, shortly after sirens wailed across the city.

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the rocket landed on Friday in an open area near Gush Ezion, which includes several Jewish settlements and Arab villages in the occupied West Bank southeast of the city.

Israel declared a state of emergency in the south, where more than one million Israelis live within rocket range. School was cancelled in communities within a 40km radius of Gaza. People living in areas along the frontier were ordered to stay home from work.

Qandil toured Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, accompanied by Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, who was making his first public appearance since Israel’s offensive began on Wednesday.

“Egypt will spare no effort … to stop the aggression and to achieve a truce,” Qandil said as he visited wounded residents at a Gaza hospital on Friday.

A man rushed toward the two leaders, shouting as he held up the body of a 4-year-old boy. The two men cradled the lifeless boy who was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Fighting to hold back tears, Qandil told reporters that the Israeli operation must end.

“What I saw today in the hospital, the wounded and the martyrs, the boy … whose blood is still on my hands and clothes, is something that we cannot keep silent about,” he said.

Israel, meanwhile, signaled a ground invasion might be imminent, with troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers massing near the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military “continues to strike hard against Hamas and is prepared to expand its action into Gaza,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

The operation began with the assassination of Hamas’ military chief and dozens of airstrikes into Gaza. While Israel claims to have inflicted heavy damage, resistance fighters have fired hundreds of rockets into southern Israel, bringing the entire region to a standstill.

At least 22 Palestinians, including six children, as well as three Israelis have been killed in three days of fierce fighting.

The 4-year-old boy whose body had been handed to Qandil and Haniyeh was killed along with a young man earlier Friday when an Israeli missile struck close to their homes in the town of Jebaliya near Gaza City, relatives said.

The area near the boy’s home showed signs that a projectile had exploded there, with shrapnel marks in the walls of surrounding homes and shattered kitchen windows.

According to Hamas sources, the Israeli F-16 fighter jet was shot down on Friday.

Meanwhile, several Israelis were injured after three rockets fired from Gaza hit the Zionist settlement of Gush Etzion in al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Palestinian missiles and rockets have also hit the other Israeli cities of Tel Aviv, Eshkol, Ashdod, Ashkelon, and Be’er Sheva.

In Tel Aviv, a rocket hit a commercial district while a second rocket landed 200 meters away from the American Embassy. It is the first time that Tel Aviv has come under attack in decades. Three Israeli soldiers have been injured in a rocket attack in Eshkol.

Hospitals across Israel are now in state of emergency.

Palestinians have fired over 550 rockets and missiles into Israel since Wednesday after Tel Aviv launched a major military strike against the besieged Palestinian territory, killing scores of people, including women and children.

The Israeli Army says it has hit more than 600 targets in Gaza during the past three days.

According to Israeli sources, the Iron Dome missile shield has only intercepted one-fifth of the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, residents of the besieged Gaza Strip say they are getting text messages warning of military escalation as reports suggest that Israeli military forces are preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza.

A senior Iranian lawmaker says a parliamentary delegation will travel to the Gaza Strip to express solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians in the besieged territory that has recently been under intense Israeli attacks.

Members of Iran’s Majlis (parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee will enter the coastal enclave via the southern Rafah border crossing, Mansour Haqiqatpour said on Friday night.

“The Iranian Foreign Ministry is holding consultations with Egyptian authorities on the visit,” said the legislator, who is also the deputy chairman of the committee.

He said the delegation will be headed by Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who chairs the committee, adding that the exact time of the visit is not set yet.

Israeli airstrikes, shelling, and artillery fire have left at least 30 Palestinians dead and over 280 others injured since Wednesday.

The Israeli Army is reportedly preparing for a ground offensive against the Palestinian enclave.