A week-long truce in Gaza has collapsed in tatters with both sides blaming each other after Palestinian fighters launched rockets into Israel and Israel attacked "terror sites" inside the enclave.
The Israeli military launched attacks on at least 10 sites in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least three people, and recalled its team working on a permanent ceasefire with Palestinians in Cairo after three rockets landed in Israel.
"In response to Hamas's violation of the truce, the prime minister and defense minister have ordered the IDF [Israeli army] to once more attack terror sites in the Gaza Strip," a government official said.
Palestinian medical officials reported that a young child and two women were killed and 16 injured in an air raid in Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. An attack on the airport area near Rafah injured two children.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas's armed wing, later said on Twitter that it had fired rockets towards Tel Aviv - confirmation that Hamas was involved in the latest violence. No one was injured in the attack on the city, the Israeli army said.
The violence apparently spells the end of efforts in Cairo to secure a permanent ceasefire to end the war in Gaza, in which more than 2,000 people have died. Most of the dead are Palestinian civilians.
The Palestinian rocket fire broke a temporary truce valid until midnight local time (9pm GMT on Tuesday).
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from West Jerusalem, said: "This is the first time that rockets have been fired since late Wednesday, and they came in the hours approaching the latest deadline for the ceasefire negotiations."
"Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, had warned any fire would be met by, in his words, 'a very aggressive response.'"
Little progress
In Cairo, Palestinian negotiators declared the ceasefire talks over, and said they would leave Egypt on Wednesday. Azzam al-Ahmad, leader of the delegation, blamed Israel for the failure, but held out hope that the talks could be resumed.
"We told the Egyptians we are ready to return to the talks once they find the proper atmosphere,'' he said, adding that the Palestinians had submitted a final ceasefire proposal.
"It's clear the Israelis are not interested in the ceasefire. We did not hear from them. We were willing to, but we did not hear from them," he said.
Hamas is seeking an end to a seven-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade that has battered Gaza's economy, while Israel wants guarantees that Hamas will disarm.
In nearly a week of indirect talks, Egypt appears to have made little headway in resolving the differences. Late on Monday, it secured a 24-hour extension to a temporary truce to allow more time for a last-ditch attempt to reach a longer-term deal.
An Egyptian compromise proposal calls for easing the blockade, but not lifting it altogether and opening the territory's air and seaports as Hamas has demanded.
While the plan does not require Hamas to give up its weapons, it would give Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces were ousted by Hamas in 2007, a foothold back in Gaza running border crossings and overseeing internationally-backed reconstruction.
PHOTO CAPTION
Children gather in the shade of a tree on August 16, 2014 in Gaza City, Gaza.
Aljazeera