Israel has launched air strikes against militant targets in the Gaza Strip, after rockets were fired from the territory towards Jerusalem.
The Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said nine people, including children, had died in the strikes.
In Jerusalem, the rocket fire caused Israel’s parliament to be evacuated as sirens sounded.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians spiralled in recent days.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers had threatened to strike after hundreds of Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli police in Jerusalem on Monday.
Israel said it had killed three Hamas militants. “We have started, and I repeat started, to attack military targets in Gaza,” Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus told reporters.
Hamas sources told the BBC a commander of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Abdullah Fayyad, had been killed.
The past few days have seen the worst violence in Jerusalem for years, with more than 300 Palestinians wounded in confrontations with Israeli police outside the al-Aqsa mosque on Monday.
