A solidarity mission of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) got underway on Wednesday as 57 international Jewish community leaders arrived in Jerusalem for meetings. A further 21 Israeli leaders and WJC staff also took part in the mission, which was organized at very short notice.

Netanyahu's office says purpose of mission is to destroy terror tunnels and seriously harm the infrastructure of Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.

Close to 100,000 leaflets containing warning message were dropped over the territory and hundreds of thousands of citizens receive messages telling them to vacate villages; security cabinet to convene Friday morning.

Israel’s army foiled a large-scale infiltration attempt along the Gaza border, during which 13 armed Palestinians emerged from a tunnel on the Israeli side of the border at dawn Thursday, an IDF spokesperson said.

European Union leaders on Wednesday condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians, stressing that ‘’Israel has the right to protect its population from this kind of attacks.’’

Pause in IDF campaign to begin at 10:00 a.m. local time; Livni told Channel 2 that Israel will have no choice but to launch a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip if rocket fire against Israeli towns continues.

Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, accompanied by her Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, visited in Ashdod, in the south of Israel, a house in a residential area hit by ongoing rockets from Gaza.

European Union leaders are discussing the situation in the Middle East and in particular current developments of the deteriorating situation in the south of Israel and the Gaza Strip, at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.

According to French police sources, a Gaza solidarity demonstration called for Saturday in Paris by Hamas supporters has been banned by police authorities ''due to grave risks to public order in a context of aggravated tension''.