Heavy exchanges of rocket fire and air strikes, and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns, fueled fears Wednesday that deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians could spiral into "full-scale war."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to halt fighting in a call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the world needs to give Israel a "strong" lesson.

Rockets streamed out of Gaza and Israel pounded the territory with airstrikes early Wednesday as the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 war took on many hallmarks of that devastating 50-day conflict, with no endgame in sight.

Gaza's Hamas rulers and other militant groups have fired barrages of hundreds of rockets that at times have overwhelmed Israel's missile defenses, causing air raid sirens and explosions to echo across Tel Aviv, Israel's biggest metropolitan area, and other cities.

A new unity government in Libya had raised hopes the war-ravaged North African nation had turned a corner towards peace -- but analysts warn that major stumbling blocks remain.

The UN envoy for Yemen, Martin Griffiths, who has been in line for a senior role at the UN since April, is expected to leave his current post, sources said Tuesday.

Hamas militants said they had fired 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Tuesday, unleashing a massive barrage on Israel's economic hub, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on 12-story tower near Gaza's coast.

Air raid sirens rang out across the Tel Aviv area and into central Israel, AFP reporters and the Israeli army said.

Israel's Ben Gurion international airport suspended air traffic on Tuesday following a massive barrage of rockets launched towards nearby Tel Aviv by Hamas militants in Gaza, the civil aviation authority said. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged both Israel and the Palestinians to lower tensions and urged an immediate end to rocket fire by Hamas.

The United States on Tuesday urged both Israel and the Palestinians to avoid "deeply lamentable" civilian deaths after air strikes by the Jewish state in response to rocket fire in Gaza.

France wants Israeli leaders to show a "proportionate use of force" in response to rockets fired by the Hamas Islamist movement following several nights of violence at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a government official said Tuesday.