Malta's envoy to Ramallah has been told by the Foreign Ministry to temporarily move out of his house and stay in a hotel because of ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians in his neighbourhood.

Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo said ambassador Franklin Aquilina lives in Sheikh Jarrah, where the current troubles started, less than a kilometre away from Jerusalem's ancient walls. The trouble flared when the Israeli authorities ordered the eviction of a large number of Palestinian families to make way for Israelis.

"We have told him to leave his house for now and stay at a hotel for his safety," Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo said in a Facebook post.

He said that Aquilina and Malta's ambassador to Tel Aviv, Patrick Cole were living difficult moments and often needed to seek shelter as Israelis and Palestinians rain rockets on each other.

No Maltese have been injured in the conflict.  

Bartolo said he is in contact with ministers around the region who are working to bring about a ceasefire. 

"Our duty is to seek a diplomatic solution, however difficult it is," he said. 

Conflict escalates  

The conflict, however, appeared to be escalating on Thursday as hundreds of rockets flew across the Gaza Strip into Israel, and Israel retaliated with 150 airstrikes,

Air raid warnings went off across Israel, including for the first time in the country's north.

Israel's air force said it had launched multiple strikes, targeting what it described as locations linked to the "counterintelligence infrastructure" of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, as well as the house of Iyad Tayeb, one of the movement's commanders. 

In Gaza, 67 people have been killed so far -- including 17 children -- and nearly 400 injured after days of near relentless Israeli air strikes.

On Wednesday, Hamas announced the death of its military chief in Gaza City, Bassem Issa, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying they had killed three other senior figures as well. 

IDF strikes also destroyed a multi-storey tower housing Palestinian television channel Al-Aqsa, set up by Hamas.

Israel said around 1,500 rockets had been launched into its territory since the beginning of the week by Palestinian militants.

Seven people have been killed, including one six-year-old after a rocket struck his home in southern Israel, the United Hatzalah volunteer rescue agency said.

The past few days have seen the most intense hostilities in seven years between Israel and Gaza's armed groups, triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.

- 'Pogrom' -

Coinciding with the aerial bombardments is surging violence between Arabs and Jews inside Israel.

On Wednesday night, Israeli far-right groups took to the streets across the country, clashing with security forces and Arab Israelis. 

Police said they had responded to violent incidents in multiple towns, including Lod, Acre and Haifa.

Israeli television aired footage of a far-right mob beating a man they considered an Arab until he lay unconscious on his back in a street of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.

"The victim of the lynching is seriously injured but stable," Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital said, without identifying him.

A state of emergency has been declared in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod, where a synagogue and other Jewish property has been torched and an Arab resident was shot dead.

Israel's President Reuven Rivlin, in unusually strong language, denounced what he described as a "pogrom" in which "an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob" had injured people and attacked sacred Jewish spaces.

In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian man was killed during a confrontation with Israeli soldiers near the northern city of Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said Thursday. 

The death brings the number killed in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in the West Bank to three on Wednesday alone. 

- Stalled diplomacy -

An emergency UN Security Council meeting on the tensions has been requested for Friday, diplomatic sources told AFP.

The Council has already held two closed-door videoconferences since Monday, with the United States -- a close Israel ally -- opposing adoption of a joint declaration, which it said would not "help de-escalate" the situation.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke later Wednesday to Biden, who said "Israel has a right to defend itself".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, urging an end to the rocket attacks.

Blinken had said earlier that a US envoy would travel to the Middle East to seek to calm tensions.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking alongside United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, called for an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet -- Russia, the United States, the UN and the EU.  

But the Israeli government has warned that "this is only the beginning", and army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said strikes on Gaza would continue as Israel prepares for "multiple scenarios".

Sending ground troops into Gaza was "one scenario" that was not the focus of the current operation, Conricus said.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has also threatened to step up attacks, warning that "if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it". 

Protest in Valletta

The Graffitti Movement and Aditus Foundation said Thursday it will hold a protest in Great Siege Square, Valletta, on Friday at 6pm to protest over the eviction of Palestinians.