US,UN push for truce as Hamas insists on end to siege

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry were in Cairo Tuesday in a bid to broker a truce between Israel and Hamas after two weeks of fighting.

Over 580 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its operation on 8 July, according to data provided by the enclave's emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra.

On the Israeli side, 27 soldiers were killed in combat while two civilians were killed by rocket fire, according to statements by the Israeli army.

In the ongoing conflict, world powers have urged Hamas to accept an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire and stop launching rockets into Israel from the Gaza Strip, though so far a truce has not been agreed upon.

"Only Hamas now needs to make the decision to spare innocent civilians from this violence," Kerry said, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed for the violence to "stop now."

Ban said Hamas "should immediately stop firing rockets," adding that while he understood Israel's military response, "there is a proportionality and ... most of the death toll (has been) Palestinian people."

But Hamas reiterated its insistence on a lifting of Israel's blockade of Gaza on Monday and the release of prisoners to halt its rocket fire.

"The conditions for a ceasefire are... a full lifting of the blockade and then the release of those recently detained in the West Bank," its leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, said on television.

"We cannot go backwards, to a slow death," he said, referring to the Israeli blockade in force since 2006.

"The conditions of the Palestinian resistance constitute the minimum required for a truce. The resistance and the sons of our people who have made such sacrifices in this mad war cannot accept anything less."

Meanwhile, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas held talks in Doha, pledging to work together for a ceasefire and to lift the blockade on Gaza.

Kerry, who arrived in Cairo to try and intensify truce efforts, plans to hold his meetings Tuesday with Egyptian leadership including President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and has pledged $47 million in humanitarian aid for the battered Gaza Strip.

However, US officials acknowledge that the truce efforts could prove trickier than in the past as Egypt - long the key regional broker – has had little leverage with Hamas after the army overthrew democratically elected president Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood last year.

Kerry has continually defended Israel's right to strike against Hamas fighters, but voiced concern over the massive civilian violence.

"We are deeply concerned about the consequences of Israel's appropriate and legitimate effort to defend itself," he told reporters as he met with the UN chief, urging Hamas to accept the Egyptian-proposed ceasefire.

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi too urged Hamas to accept an Egyptian proposal to end the fighting.

Air strikes continue - 100,000 displaced

A series of Israeli air strikes early Tuesday killed seven people in Gaza, including five members of the same family, emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Qudra said a strike on Deir el-Balah in central Gaza killed five family members, four of them women.

Another person was killed in a strike in nearby Nusseirat, and one more died in the southern city of Khan Younis.

Many of those killed in the relentless Israeli campaign of shelling and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip have been women and children, medics say.

Last Thursday night, Israel stepped up its offensive to include ground operations, sending thousands of troops into the embattled Palestinian territory.

Since the offensive began huge numbers of Gazans have fled their homes, with the UN saying more than 100,000 people have sought shelter in 69 schools run by its Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA).

Israel has pounded the embattled coastal enclave with fierce air and naval bombardments with the stated aim of halting Palestinian rocket fire and destroying tunnels burrowed into Israel by Hamas, the main power in the coastal strip.

Israel's military operation, "Operation Protective Edge," is Israel’s third major offensive against the densely-populated Gaza Strip - which is home to some 1.8 million Palestinians - within the last six years.

Rocket fire into Israel - violence in West Bank

The Israeli army said early Tuesday that four rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at the southern city of Beersheba.

One rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket defence system while the other three hit open areas, the army said on its official Twitter account, without stating whether they left any damage or casualties.

116 rockets hit Israel on Monday, one striking the greater Tel Aviv area, and another 17 were shot down, the army said.

Violence also broke out in the West Bank, where an Israeli shot dead a Palestinian who had been throwing stones at his car, Palestinian security sources said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military was investigating the death, which she said took place during "a violent riot".

Israeli police said there were riots also in east Jerusalem neighbourhoods Monday night, with no casualties.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, an Israeli was seriously wounded after a Palestinian opened fire at him from a travelling car, the army said.

Video: Violence continues as Israeli soldier is 'captured'