Six Palestinians and one Israeli killed during latest flare-up between armed factions in Gaza and Israeli army.

Israeli warplanes and gunboats continued to target the Gaza Strip on Sunday, as rockets were also fired from Gaza into southern Israel.

The latest violence comes a day after at least six Palestinians, including a pregnant mother and her one-year-old baby, and one Israeli, were killed in tit-for-tat strikes and rocket attacks.

Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from the Israeli side of the border with Gaza, said the escalation was “far from over”.

“This is potentially a dangerous and long, major military escalation,” he said. “The Israeli media is quoting senior defence sources as saying they expect this fighting to last some days.”

Speaking at the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to strengthen military forces along the Israeli border and to keep up “massive strikes” in response to the rockets.

“I have given the order for the air force and the artillery to continue bombing Gaza,” he said. “We will continue to work to restore security to the people living in the south.”

“Hamas is responsible not only for its attacks against Israel, but also for the Islamic Jihad’s attacks, and it is paying a very heavy price for it,” he added.

Israeli media reported Gaza fighters over the past two days fired more than 400 rockets at towns and cities in southern Israel and that the Israeli Iron Dome anti-missile system had intercepted more than 250 of them.

The government media office in Gaza said Israeli warplanes carried out about 150 raids, in addition to artillery-shelling targeting 200 civilian landmarks in the Gaza Strip, including residential buildings, mosques, shops and media institutions.

About 40 Palestinians were wounded in the attacks, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

One of the buildings destroyed had housed the Gaza bureau of the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency.

“We call on the international community to act swiftly in order to ease tensions that have increased due to Israel’s disproportionate actions in the region,” a Turkish foreign ministry statement said.

An explosion is pictured among buildings during an Israeli air raid on Gaza City [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

On Sunday, the Israeli army denied that Falastine Abu Arar, the 37-year-old pregnant mother, and her infant daughter Siba, were killed by Israeli forces, instead blaming a misfiring of a Palestinian rocket.

Two men, 22-year-old Imad Nseir and 25-year-old Khaled Abu Qaleeq, were also killed by Israeli air raids on Saturday night.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group said the two men killed overnight on Sunday, Mahmoud Issa, 26 and Fawzi Bawadi, 23, were members of its armed wing.

A 58-year-old Israeli man was killed by a rocket strike on the city of Ashkelon, according to Israeli police.