Live: Israeli troops mass near Gaza border as tensions escalate

NEAR GAZA BORDER - Israel prepares combat troops and is in “various stages of preparing ground operations“, a military spokesman has said, a move that would recall similar incursions during Israel-Gaza wars in 2014 and 2008-2009. Hamas fired dozens of rockets towards Tel Aviv late on Tuesday in response to an Israeli air strike that had flattened a tower block in the Strip. Israel has launched air strikes against militant targets in the Gaza Strip, after rockets were fired from the territory towards Jerusalem.