A video released online shows how Islamic Jihad terrorists fired this evening's barrage of rocket attacks from within heavily-populated areas in Gaza.

The footage, which was posted on a Hamas-linked Facebook page, shows the challenges often faced by the Israeli military in responding to such attacks whilst avoiding civilian casualties.

It illustrates what Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, have often referred to as a "double war-crime": the firing of rockets against Israeli civilians, whilst using the Palestinian Arab civilian population in Gaza as cover, and in the hope that any Israeli response will draw condemnation for striking a civilian area.

Israeli reactions appear to indicate that a military reaction will not be long in coming.

Netanyahu has already threatened a "forceful response" to the attacks, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman went a step further, calling for the IDF to retake the Gaza Strip.

In the last few minutes Israeli army tanks reportedly destroyed two unspecified "terror targets" in the Islamist-controlled territory.