Five Palestinians, including at least one woman, died on Friday when a house in Rafah in southern Gaza was hit, and 15 other people were wounded, Gaza emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

An airstrike around an hour before killed Anas Abu al-Kass, 33, of Gaza City's Tel el-Hawa neighborhood.

According to Qudra, around 95 Gazans have been killed since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge early on Tuesday to halt cross-border rocket fire by militant groups.

Since the start of the operation, Gaza militants have fired 407 mortars and rockets that struck Israel, while another 118 rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, an army spokeswoman said Friday.

It is the deadliest violence since a November 2012 conflict in Gaza, and militants have been firing rockets at al-Quds and Tel Aviv for the first time since then. No Israelis have been killed from the rocket fire.

Israel has also authorized the call-up of 40,000 reservist troops, as it threatens a ground operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza militants.

The US is prepared to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza, President Barack Obama has said.

His comments came during a phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu earlier said Israel's operation was progressing as planned and "more stages were expected".

BA/BA