Analysis: A series of combustible events coincided dangerously to trigger worst violence in years

The current crisis between Israelis and Palestinians, like so many before, has complex roots in the foundation of Israel in 1948 and after the six-day war in 1967 when Israel captured then Arab-controlled parts of Jerusalem, including the Old City and its holy sites.

Latest news as IDF says ground forces have joined the attacks on Gaza Strip but have not entered the enclave

• Full report: assault on Gaza escalates
• Israeli army says it has not entered the Gaza strip
• Israel’s army drafts Gaza ground operation plan as mob violence escalates
• ‘All I saw was fire’: rockets fracture the sense of safety in Tel Aviv
• Gaza weapons boast may come back to haunt Hamas

2.58am BST

We are pausing this live coverage for a while, but will bring you any key developments and breaking news when it happens.

2.41am BST

The Israeli Defense Forces have sent the Guardian their “clarification” stating that there are “currently no IDF ground troops” in Gaza. It is brief, and does not explain the earlier statement to the contrary given to journalists and published in Twitter:

The IDF statement "clarifying" what happened tonight in Gaza: pic.twitter.com/jrxphiwUm0

Clarification: there are currently no IDF ground troops inside the Gaza strip. IDF air and ground forces are carrying out strikes on targets in the Gaza strip.

Analysis: attacks will challenge Israeli establishment to deal with a threat made suddenly very real

In the rounds of fighting and violence between Hamas and Israel in Gaza in the last dozen years, one thing has always appeared baked into the proposition. For all their industriousness and attempts at innovation in developing weapons and ways of attacking, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have been at best largely ineffectual when it comes to targeting Israel from inside the Gaza Strip.

From the early rocket systems to labour-intensive attack tunnels and incendiary balloons, the efforts were crude. Even when the rockets became more sophisticated by the time of the 2014 conflict, flying further and with bigger warheads, most of them were shot out of the sky.