ISRAEL stepped up bombardment of Gaza from air and sea today, launching over 100 strikes that killed at least 10 Palestinians, including two children.

Israeli officials disclosed that the government had authorised the army to mobilise an additional 40,000 troops, if needed, for the operation. 

The army said that there were no immediate plans to call up the troops but that they would be activated depending on operational needs. 

Israel has already mobilised about 1,500 reservists.

Military and political sources have persistently described their onslaught against Palestine as a response to rocket fire that has reached deeper into Israel but has caused little damage or casualties.

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has been preparing its assaults ever since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas withdrew from futile talks with Israel and opted for a unity government with Islamist resistance group Hamas.

The government sent thousands of troops to rampage through the West Bank, seizing over 500 hostages and attacking offices and businesses it said were linked to Hamas.

They were supposed to be searching for three teenagers from illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied territories whose bodies were later found near Hebron.

Mr Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the murders and whipped up calls for vengeance that culminated in the abduction and burning to death of Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir in Jerusalem.

Many of yesterday’s air strikes were directed at Hamas targets.

The air force claimed to have taken out a Hamas command centre embedded within a civilian building, to have killed four Hamas members by rocketing their car and to have attacked the home of a Hamas leader in Khan Younis.

The latter assault resulted in six people being killed, two of them children.

Mr Netanyahu has instructed the military to prepare options for every scenario, including a ground invasion.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has broken with the PM while remaining in his government, has accused Mr Netanyahu of timidity in responding to Hamas.

Military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner prepared Israelis for lengthy hostilities, saying: “We don’t expect it to be a short mission on our behalf.”