Israel's interior minister has publicly vowed to "send Gaza back to the Middle Ages" as the aerial and naval bombardment of the besieged enclave, as well as the Palestinian rocket barrage against Israel, continued into Sunday.

"The goal of the operation is to send Gaza back to the Middle Ages," Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai, a member of the ultra-orthodox Shas party, said, according to the leading Israeli daily Haaretz. "Only then will Israel be calm for 40 years."

The Orthodox Jewish news site Yeshiva World News also quoted Yishai as saying, "We must blow Gaza back to the Middle Ages, destroying all the infrastructure including roads and water."