GAZA CITY- ISRAELI warplanes pounded militant targets including a mosque in Gaza on Friday as angry protests unfurled on Hamas's 'day of wrath' against the blistering assault that has killed more than 420 people.

'We will sacrifice our soul and our blood for Gaza,' chanted the demonstrators, shouting out pro-Hamas slogans and calling on the Islamists to 'hit Tel-Aviv'.

Hamas called for the protests after an Israeli air strike killed Nizar Rayan, a firebrand hardliner, and several of his wives and children. At least 422 Palestinians have now been killed in Israel's seven-day-old blitz, with at least 25 percent of them civilians, according to a UN count.

Mr Rayan is the most senior Islamist figure killed by Israel since Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in 2004 and Hamas again warned that it could resume suicide operations against Israel for the first time since January 2005 to avenge his death.

'After the last crime, all options are open to counter this aggression, including martyr operations against Zionist targets everywhere,' Hamas official Ismail Radwan vowed after the attack.

With Israeli tanks and troops massed around Gaza for a threatened ground offensive and no ceasefire in sight, the army allowed foreigners to leave the battered enclave.

'The (border) crossing was specially reopened to allow foreign nationals to leave the Gaza Strip,' an army spokesman told AFP, adding that more than 400 people, mostly dual nationals, were expected to cross.

The Israeli military pounded the densely populated territory for a seventh day, carrying out some 20 strikes overnight, bombing rocket launching sites and Hamas buildings, the army said.

Among the targets was a mosque in the northern town of Jabaliya that the military said was a 'terror hub', used to stockpile weapons and as a Hamas operations centre.

At least two people were killed in the latest raids, which targeted a house in Jabaliya, medics said.

The Islamist movement kept firing back, sending a handful of rockets into Israeli territory overnight without causing casualties.

Israel unleashed its 'Operation Cast Lead' on Hamas in Gaza on December 27 in response to persistent rocket fire from the territory, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since the Islamists seized control in June 2007.

Besides the Palestinians killed in the offensive, a further 2,180 have been wounded, according to medics.

Gaza militants have fired more than 360 rockets into Israel, killing four people and wounding dozens more. Some of the rockets have reached deeper than ever inside Israeli territory, penetrating some 40 kilometres (24 miles) from the Gaza border.

The Israeli offensive - one of its deadliest-ever on Gaza - has sparked angry protests in the Muslim world and defied diplomatic efforts to broker a truce.

In the latest protests, tens of thousands took to the streets of Jakarta, thousands demonstrated in Afghanistan, more than 4,000 Muslims demonstrated in Sydney and hundreds of Muslims burnt Israeli flags in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni reiterated that Israel did not think the time was yet ripe for a truce after talks in Paris on Thursday with President Nicolas Sarkozy and other French leaders.

'The question of whether it's enough or not will be the result of our assessment on a daily basis,' she said.

Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Ms Livni and Defence Minister Ehud Barak held talks well into the night and planned to continue their discussions over the weekend, Mr Olmert's office said.

'For the time being the military operation is continuing in accordance with what has been approved by the cabinet,' a government official said.

Peace moves were also stalled at the UN Security Council.

The majority of the Israeli public is supporting the Gaza offensive, with some 95 per cent of Jewish residents backing the air strikes according to a survey published on Friday in the Maariv daily. -- AFP