The strike comes a day after similar Israeli sorties killed 23 Palestinians, including seven children from the same family, making it the deadliest day since the assault began two weeks ago.
A total of 75 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched a massive air and ground offensive on impoverished Gaza in a bid to release a teenage soldier captured by militants last month and end rocket attacks.
Ten children, one of them just four months old, were injured in Thursday morning's raid, doctors at Gaza City's Al Shifa Hospital said. The children lived in nearby homes which were badly damaged in the powerful blast, witnesses said.
In going after the foreign ministry, Israel has targeted the offices of one of the Hamas government's most prominent leaders, long-time Islamist activist and current foreign minister Mahmoud Al Zahar.
"The offices are headed by Mahmoud Al Zahar who is responsible for both planning and directing terrorist attacks," army spokeswoman Captain Noa Meir said. "These offices serve one of the most extreme leaders of the Hamas terror organization."
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has slammed the deadly and ongoing air strikes as "total aggression" and called on the US administration and Middle East quartet to intervene immediately to ease the crisis.
He said the Israeli "escalation" was "complicating matters," and called for diplomatic efforts to be given a chance to end the crisis.
The armed wing of the governing Palestinian movement Hamas, which claimed joint responsibility for the capture of Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25, vowed a "strong and painful" response after Wednesday's deaths.
Just hours later, the Israeli army opened a new front in the Middle East crisis, launching a ground and air assault on southern Lebanon and Beirut international airport after the Shia movement Hizbullah captured two soldiers on Israel's northern border.
"There are people to the north and south of our country who continue to want to compromise our stability," Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters.
In Wednesday's attacks, Israel said it wounded Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas' armed wing the Ezzedine Al Qassem Brigades who is believed to be the mastermind behind a wave of suicide bombings in the 1990s that killed dozens of Israelis.
A Palestinian medical source confirmed that Deif had been operated on but his life was not in danger. A spokesman for the Qassem Brigades, however, denied reports that Deif was wounded as "deceitful information intended to cover up Zionist crimes."
The strike thought to have hit Deif killed nine members of the same family, including Hamas political leader Nabil Abu Salmeeyah, who owned the house and taught at the Islamic University, his wife and five of their children.
Two of the children's cousins were also killed when an F-16 jet demolished the house.
"Our reaction to this massacre will be painful and strong for the Zionists and we will make the enemy leadership sorry for their crime," the Qassem Brigades vowed.
The air strike was preceded by a large-scale incursion into the central Gaza Strip with Israeli forces penetrating up to one kilometer [more than half a mile] inside the territory.
Nine more Palestinians died in Israeli attacks elsewhere in Gaza, including two policemen and seven gunmen, medical sources said. One of the dead belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees, which together with the military wing of Hamas and a third group claimed the June 25 capture of Shalit.
Another five Palestinians died when an Israeli aircraft fired a missile near Deir Al Balah. The Israeli military said the raid attacked and identified hitting a group of armed gunmen.
One Gaza security source said, however, that all those killed were teenagers unarmed at the time. Six other people were wounded.
Israel has flatly refused to negotiate with Hamas or free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit, vowing the assault will continue "in places, in time, in measures" at its convenience.
Aid groups have expressed concern about the difficulties of providing assistance to 1.4 million people living in Gaza following months of financial crisis and the suspension of direct Western aid to the Hamas-led government.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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