U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday reiterated his urging for a halt to violence between Israel and the Palestinians in a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

"The secretary reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence," said a State Department statement. 

Calls grew on Wednesday for a de-escalation of violence after intense hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians that have left at least 65 dead and hundreds injured.

Hamas said it fired a barrage of rockets Wednesday towards central and southern Israel, where rescue workers reported one of them killed a six-year-old boy.

The Palestinian group said in a statement that it launched 130 rockets in response to an Israeli air raid that leveled the Al-Sharouk tower in Gaza City.

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.