GAZA CITY, AA - Israeli aircraft and warships fired in the early hours of Wednesday nearly 60 missiles at different targets across the Gaza Strip, according to eyewitnesses.

It was not immediately clear if the bombing had left any causality.

Seven Palestinians, including six from the same family, were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip late Tuesday.

The latest fatalities brought to at least 24 the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave since Monday, according to medical sources.

The death toll does not include four Palestinians killed by Israeli troops during a daring attack on the Israeli Zakim naval base late on Tuesday.

Israel has announced the launch of a military offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – with the stated aim of staunching rocket fire from Gaza.

The Israeli army said Tuesday that its air and naval forces had struck scores of sites across the Gaza Strip overnight, while ground troops were being amassed on the strip's borders in advance of a possible ground incursion.

Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, continued to fire rockets into Israel in response to ongoing Israeli airstrikes.

The latest escalations come amid heightened tension over the killing of three teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank last month and the subsequent murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy by Jewish settlers.