Fresh air strikes launched on Gaza after over 250 rockets launched towards Israel

Schools remain closed in border communities after the heaviest bout of fighting seen in the region for months.

Naftali Bennett, Israel’s newly appointed defence minister, said: “Whoever plans to hurt us during the day can never be sure that he will make it through the night.”

Sharren Haskel, a Likud MK and member of the Knesset’s defence committee, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday that Baha Abu al-Ata had been “in the midst of planning a major attack on Israel”.

When Israel passed on intelligence to Europe about a terrorist threat “you don’t question”, she said, but when the threat was targeted at Israelis rather than Europeans, “then you come and question it.”