The visit is expected to last about three hours, and an official in Mr. Netanyahu’s office said by telephone that Israel had told Egypt that the cease-fire would hold as long as “there would not be hostile fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.” 
 
 “Prime Minister Netanyahu is committed to the peace treaty with Egypt,” the official said. “That peace serves the strategic interests of both countries.” There was no suggestion that the Israelis were considering a more permanent cease-fire at this stage. 
 
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 Tel Aviv was not hit on Thursday. One rocket crashed into the sea off its coast and another apparently fell, the ability of militants 40 miles away to fire those weapons at the city of 400,000 underscored, in the Israeli government’s view, the justification for the intensive aerial assaults on hundreds of suspected rocket storage sites and other targets in Gaza. 
 
 Health officials in Gaza said at least 19 people, including five children and a pregnant teenager, had been killed over two days of nearly nonstop aerial attacks by Israel, and dozens had been wounded. Three Israelis were killed on Thursday in Kiryat Malachi, this small southern Israeli town, when a rocket fired from Gaza struck their apartment house. 
 
 In a sign of solidarity with Hamas as well as a diplomatic move to ease the crisis, President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt ordered his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza. In another diplomatic signal, Ban Ki-moon , the United Nations secretary general, also planned to visit Jerusalem , Cairo and Ramallah, the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority , in coming days. 
 
 In Washington, Obama administration officials said they had asked friendly Arab countries with ties to Hamas, which the United States and Israel regard as a terrorist group, to use their influence to seek a way to defuse the hostilities. At the same time, however, a State Department spokesman, Mark C. Toner, reiterated to reporters the American position that Israel had a right to defend itself from the rocket fire and that the “onus was on Hamas” to stop it. 
 
 The Pentagon said late Thursday that Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke to Mr. Barak this week about Israeli operations in and around Gaza and condemned the violence carried out by Hamas and other groups against Israel. 
 
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 There was no sign that either side was prepared, at least not yet, to restore the uneasy truce that was forged the last time the Israelis invaded Gaza in the winter of 2008-9, a three-week war that left 1,400 Palestinians dead and drew widespread international condemnation. 
 
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 Denunciations of Israel for what critics called a renewal of its aggressive and disproportionate attacks spread quickly on the second day of the aerial assaults. The biggest criticism came from the 120-nation Nonaligned Movement , the largest bloc at the United Nations. In a statement released by Iran , which holds the group’s rotating presidency and is one of Israel’s most ardent foes, the group said: “Israel, the occupying power, is, once more, escalating its military campaign against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip.” The group made no mention of the Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israel but condemned “this act of aggression by the Israelis and their resort to force against the defenseless people” and demanded “decisive action by the U.N. Security Council .” 
 
 For his part, Mr. Netanyahu accused Hamas of placing thousands of smuggled rockets into civilian areas, including near schools and hospitals, and firing them randomly into Israel without regard to where they landed. “In the past 24 hours Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on its civilians,” he said in a statement. “I hope that Hamas and the other terror organizations in Gaza got the message.” 
 
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 The Israel Defense Forces said that within hours of the Tel Aviv air-raid warning, they had attacked 70 underground rocket-launching sites in Gaza and “direct hits were confirmed.” There were also unconfirmed reports that Israeli rockets had struck near Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt, forcing the Egyptians to close it. 
 
 Military officials said Israel’s aerial assaults had hit more than 450 sites in Gaza by early Friday. The officials also said militants in Gaza had fired more than 300 rockets into southern Israel and at least 130 more had been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system. 
 
 In Gaza, health officials said, those who died Thursday included a 2-year-old boy who had been struck on Wednesday in the southern town of Khan Yunis, a 10-month-old girl wounded on Wednesday in the Zeitoun area and a child in the northern border town of Beit Hanoun. A 50-year-old man in Beit Lahiyeh, near the northern border, was killed Thursday afternoon when he was buried by sand after a bomb exploded nearby. Others killed Thursday included two brothers in Beit Hanoun, two Hamas members of a rocket-launching squad in Beit Lahiyeh, and three other Hamas fighters killed in a single strike in Khan Yunis. 
 
 Southern Israel had been the target of more than 750 rockets fired from Gaza this year that hit homes and caused injuries. Among the dozens fired on Thursday was one that smashed into a four-story apartment building in Kiryat Malachi, which means City of Angels, and resulted in the first Israeli civilian deaths. 
 
 It was just after 8 a.m. when the sirens blared in Kiryat Malachi, a largely working-class town of 20,000 about 15 miles north of Gaza, which had not suffered a direct hit by rockets from Gaza before. 
 
 One of the top-floor apartments was home to the Scharf family, a couple in their 20s with young children. Neighbors said they had recently come from India , where they were emissaries for the Chabad-Lubavitch organization of Hasidic Jews. At the incoming rocket alert they did not rush for the relative safety of the stairwell as many of the neighbors did, perhaps not knowing the drill. 
 
 In the adjacent apartment, Yitzhak Amsalem, also in his 20s, ignored his mother’s pleas to take shelter. Instead he and Aharon Smadja, a rabbi and a friend, stood by the window, eager to photograph “the fireworks,” neighbors said. 
 
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 When the rocket crashed into the top of building, Mr. Amsalem and Mr. Smadja, and Mira Scharf, the mother, were killed. ||||| Media caption BBC's Jeremy Bowen: "Civilians on both sides need a ceasefire" 
 
 Israel has put plans for a ground operation in Gaza "on hold" to give talks to secure a truce with Hamas militants a chance, officials say. 
 
 It is understood Israel has set a Thursday deadline for the Egypt-brokered talks to succeed. 
 
 The conflict began last Wednesday when Israel killed a top Hamas military commander, saying it wanted to end rocket attacks on its soil. 
 
 More than 110 Palestinians and three Israelis have been killed so far. 
 
 Tuesday has seen a reduced level of violence, correspondents say, even though Israel has conducted some strikes - one was a "direct hit" on two militants in northern Gaza, the Israeli military said. 
 
 And rockets have been fired towards Israel - mainly targeting the south. However, two landed in an open area near Jerusalem, causing no injuries or damage. 
 
 Talk of war 
 
 Officials are due to restart talks in Cairo, and Egyptian officials have told the BBC there are signs of progress. 
 
 Media caption UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon: "Families and children are dying as a result of senseless violence'' 
 
 Israeli troops are massed along the border, raising fears of a ground offensive similar to that of 2008-09. 
 
 An Israeli spokesman told the BBC: "Israel wants talks to succeed but we're prepared to go into Gaza". 
 
 In a rare appearance, top Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif said Palestinians should prepare for a ground offensive, but warned: "The enemy will pay a heavy price if it thinks of entering Gaza." 
 
 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due in Israel for crisis talks. 
 
 Mrs Clinton was going to underline that "the best way to solve this is through diplomacy, so that you have a peaceful settlement that ends that rocket fire and allows for a broader calm in the region", said Mr Obama's Deputy National Security Adviser, Ben Rhodes. 
 
 During the night, the Israeli military said it had carried out about 100 strikes mainly on smuggling tunnels and underground rocket-launching facilities. Hamas officials say seven people were killed. 
 
 A father and his two sons - thought to be two and four - were among those killed overnight, Hamas health ministry officials said. 
 
 More than 60 rockets have been fired from Gaza toward Israel so far on Tuesday - some managed to get through Israel's Iron Dome interception system, Israeli officials said. 
 
 A soldier was "moderately wounded" by shrapnel in Eshkol, southern Israel, the army said. 
 
 Regional risk 
 
 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Arab League Chief Nabil al-Arabi in Cairo on Tuesday, before heading for talks in Israel. 
 
 "I'm here to appeal personally for an end to the violence and to offer my ongoing efforts to achieve a ceasefire," Mr Ban told a joint news conference in Cairo. 
 
 Mr Ban warned against a ground operation in Gaza. 
 
 "Further escalating the situation will put the entire region at risk," he said. 
 
 Egypt has been trying to broker a ceasefire with the help of Qatar and Turkey. 
 
 Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Arab foreign ministers are expected to visit Gaza on Tuesday. 
 
 Media caption The search for a ceasefire is now urgent 
 
 The UK urged both sides to stop attacks. 
 
 "There is no military solution to the conflict in Gaza," UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said. 
 
 The content of the Egyptian plan is not known, but both Israel and Hamas have presented conditions. 
 
 Israel's demands include no hostile fire of any kind from Gaza and international efforts to prevent Hamas from rearming, while Hamas is demanding an end to the blockade on Gaza and "Israel's assassinations". 
 
 Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after winning a decisive victory in general elections. Israel withdrew from the strip in 2005 but maintains a blockade. 
 
 Israel, as well as the United States and the European Union, regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "The goal must be a durable outcome that promotes regional stability" 
 
 International efforts to finalise a ceasefire are being stepped up after a night of renewed Israeli air strikes in Gaza and sporadic Hamas rocket attacks. 
 
 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is visiting the West Bank and, later, Cairo after talks with Israeli leaders. 
 
 Palestinian sources had suggested a truce would be announced on Tuesday, but Israel said no deal was struck. 
 
 Some 136 Palestinians and five Israelis have been killed since the flare-up began eight days ago, officials say. 
 
 On Tuesday alone, the conflict claimed the lives of at least 20 Palestinians and two Israelis. 
 
 Mrs Clinton has arrived in Ramallah on the West Bank for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is also visiting leaders in the region to try to cement a ceasefire. 
 
 In Cairo, officials from Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that has governed Gaza since 2007, had suggested a truce would come into effect at midnight on Tuesday, but Israel later said it had not agreed to a text. 
 
 Israel's demands include no hostile fire of any kind from Gaza and international efforts to prevent Hamas from re-arming, while Hamas is demanding an end to the blockade on Gaza and targeted killings by Israel. 
 
 Before me two men are salvaging burnt & damaged copies of the Quran from the rubble of the compound Paul Danahar (@pdanahar) on Twitter 
 
 An Israeli official told Israel Radio the ceasefire had not been agreed because of "a last-minute delay in the understandings between Hamas and Israel". 
 
 Offices struck 
 
 In the early hours of Wednesday, BBC correspondents in Gaza reported hearing loud explosions that were followed by a widespread power cut. 
 
 Israeli missiles struck the main complex of the Hamas-run government in the centre of Gaza City. 
 
 The BBC's Paul Danahar in Gaza said the huge compound had been laid to waste and was little more than dust and rubble. 
 
 The Israeli military later tweeted it had "surgically targeted a Hamas intelligence operations centre" on the seventh floor of a media building. 
 
 Israel's military, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said it had attacked more than 100 "terror sites" in Gaza overnight "of which approximately 50 were underground rocket launchers". 
 
 The health ministry in Gaza said 15 more people had been injured overnight. 
 
 The BBC's Jon Donnison in Gaza says the streets were again empty on Wednesday morning, as people tried to protect themselves at home while waiting for something positive to come from talks in Cairo. 
 
 Israel says more than 800 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel over the past week, 162 in the past day alone. 
 
 Many of the rockets have been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system. 
 
 Overnight, two rockets were knocked down by Iron Dome and others landed on open ground, Israel Radio said. By morning, air raid sirens sounded in many parts of southern Israel, local media reported. 
 
 'Sustainable outcome' 
 
 Hamas officials in Cairo accused Israel of failing to respond to ceasefire proposals. 
 
 Israeli spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC: "I have no doubt that Hamas would be more than happy to have a temporary respite - a time out... so they could rest and re-arm and we would have missiles on Israel next week or next month. We are not interested in that." 
 
 Image caption Smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip have been targeted by Israel 
 
 US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Mrs Clinton - who flew into Jerusalem late on Tuesday - had held two hours of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials. 
 
 "They discussed efforts to de-escalate the situation and bring about a sustainable outcome that protects Israel's security and improves the lives of civilians in Gaza," Ms Nuland said. 
 
 Speaking just before the talks, Mr Netanyahu said Israel wanted a diplomatic solution but that he was ready to take "whatever action" was necessary. 
 
 "If there is a possibility of achieving a long-term solution to this problem by diplomatic means, we prefer that. But if not, then I am sure you will understand that Israel will have to take whatever actions are necessary to defend its people," he said. 
 
 Israel's Haaretz newspaper said there were divided views in the government over the truce proposals, with Defence Minister Ehud Barak in favour of accepting an Egyptian draft, while Mr Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman were opposed. 
 
 The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says both sides want more out of this than just a ceasefire. The Palestinians want a lifting of the blockade of Gaza, permanently reopening the borders. He says the hope would be that this will defuse tension and reduce pressure on Hamas. 
 
 The Israelis want an end to attacks, our correspondent says, but specifically want to prevent Hamas restocking its missiles. He says the key to that is how the Egyptians can seal the border; but this is politically sensitive among the Egyptian people and also physically difficult, as the military has a lot of trouble controlling militants in Sinai. 
 
 Israel launched its current offensive a week ago with the killing of Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari. The Israeli government says his assassination, and the subsequent offensive, aims to end rocket fire from Gaza. 
 
 Israel has troops massed along the Gaza border but says it is holding off on a possible ground invasion as talks continue. ||||| GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli missile killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza on Sunday, medical officials said, apparently an attack on a top militant that brought a three-storey home crashing down. 
 
 International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount in response to the deadliest single incident in five days of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. 
 
 Egypt has taken the lead in trying to broker a ceasefire and Israeli media said a delegation from Israel had been to Cairo for talks on ending the fighting, although a government spokesman declined to comment on the matter. 
 
 Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi met Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal and Islamic Jihad's head Ramadan Shallah as part of the mediation efforts, but a presidency statement did not say if they were conclusive. 
 
 Izzat Risheq, a close aide to Meshaal, wrote in a Facebook message that Hamas would agree to a ceasefire only after Israel "stops its aggression, ends its policy of targeted assassinations and lifts the blockade of Gaza". 
 
 Listing Israel's terms for ceasing fire, Moshe Yaalon, a deputy to the prime minister, wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack." 
 
 Gaza health officials said 72 Palestinians , 21 of them children and several women have been killed in Gaza since Israel's offensive began. Hundreds have been wounded. 
 
 Israel gave off signs of a possible ground invasion of the Hamas-run enclave as the next stage in its offensive, billed as a bid to stop Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. It also spelt out its conditions for a truce. 
 
 U.S. President Barack Obama said that while Israel had a right to defend itself against the salvoes, it would be "preferable" to avoid a military thrust into the Gaza Strip, a narrow, densely populated coastal territory. Such an assault would risk high casualties and an international outcry. 
 
 A spokesman for the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said 11 people, all of them civilians, were killed when an Israeli missile flattened the home of the Dalu family. Medics said four women and four children were among the dead. 
 
 Israel's chief military spokesman said Yihia Abayah, a senior commander of rocket operations in the Gaza Strip, had been the target. 
 
 The spokesman, Yoav Mordechai, told Israel's Channel 2 television he did not know whether Abayah was killed, "but the outcome was that there were civilian casualties". He made no direct mention of the destroyed dwelling. 
 
 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier that he had assured world leaders that Israel was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian casualties in the military showdown with Hamas. 
 
 "The massacre of the Dalu family will not pass without punishment," Hamas's armed wing said in a statement. 
 
 VIOLENCE 
 
 In other air raids on Sunday, two Gaza City media buildings were hit, witnesses said. Eight journalists were wounded and facilities belonging to Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV as well as Britain's Sky News were damaged. 
 
 An employee of the Beirut-based al Quds television station lost his leg in the attack, local medics said. 
 
 The Israeli military said the strike targeted a rooftop "transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity", and that journalists in the building had effectively been used as human shields by Gaza's rulers. 
 
 For their part, Gaza militants launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day, once in the morning and another after dark. 
 
 Israel's "Iron Dome" missile shield shot down all three rockets, but falling debris from the daytime interception hit a car, which caught fire. Its driver was not hurt. 
 
 In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of Gaza, tanks, artillery and infantry massed in field encampments along the sandy, fenced-off border. Military convoys moved on roads in the area newly closed to civilian traffic. 
 
 Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive. 
 
 "We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organisations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," he said at a cabinet meeting, giving no further details. 
 
 The Israeli military said 544 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel since Wednesday, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. Some 302 were intercepted and 99 failed to reach Israel and landed inside the Gaza Strip, it added. 
 
 Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and force the Islamist Hamas to stop rocket fire that has bedevilled Israeli border towns for years and is now displaying greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the crosshairs. 
 
 Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the impoverished enclave, which the Israelis have kept under blockade. 
 
 OBAMA CAUTIONS AGAINST GROUND CAMPAIGN 
 
 At a news conference during a visit to the Thai capital Bangkok, Obama said Israel has "every right to expect that it does not have missiles fired into its territory". 
 
 He added: "If this can be accomplished without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza that is preferable. That's not just preferable for the people of Gaza, it's also preferable for Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza they're much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded," he said. 
 
 Obama said he had been in regular contact with Egyptian and Turkish leaders - to secure their mediation in bringing about a halt to rocket barrages by Hamas and other Islamist militants. 
 
 "We're going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours," he added. 
 
 Diplomatic efforts continued on Sunday when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met Israeli officials and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. 
 
 "It is absolutely necessary that we move urgently towards a ceasefire, and that's where France can be useful," Fabius told French television, adding that war must be avoided. 
 
 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be in Egypt on Monday for talks with Mursi, the foreign ministry in Cairo said. U.N. diplomats earlier said Ban was expected in Israel and Egypt this week to push for an end to the fighting. 
 
 Israel's operation has so far drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called its right to self-defence, but there was also a growing number of appeals from them to seek an end to the hostilities.
– A brief, planned ceasefire failed to materialize in Gaza today, as death continued to rain down on the strip. Israel had offered to hold its offensive to accommodate a visit from Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Kandil, provided Hamas held its fire as well. But Hamas said it would keep firing, and one Israeli defense minister complained that 50 rockets had flown in from Gaza during Kandil's visit, CNN reports. A Hamas-run TV station reported that Israel had kept firing as well, but Israel says it took a break for at least two hours. In Palestine the death toll has risen to 21, including 13 civilians, Reuters reports. Among those civilians were seven children and a pregnant teenager. Israel's death toll held steady at 3, despite the hundreds of rockets fired into Israel. But Hamas did up the ante by firing rockets near Tel Aviv for the first time. Air-raid sirens sounded (the last time they did so was during the Gulf War) and civilians ran for cover, though the missiles exploded harmlessly, with one going into the sea. "There will be a price for that escalation," Ehud Barak vowed, according to the New York Times. Israel has now hit 250 Gaza targets, while taking further steps toward a ground invasion, calling up 16,000 reservists, the Wall Street Journal reports. It's also steadily sending troops and armored vehicles to the border, notes CNN—between 1,500 and 2,000 are already there, one official said. Israel claims the attacks have weakened Hamas' military capabilities and caused its attacks to lighten, but Hamas denied that, saying it had hit multiple Israeli targets today. Kandil emerged from his meeting with Hamas expressing solidarity, saying the new Egyptian regime would be more active in helping the Palestinians. "The time has changed," he said. "No longer the Israeli occupation will be able to carry out their attacks against the Palestinians without being held responsible. That time is far bygone." For its part, the Obama administration says it's seeking help from Arab countries in calling on Hamas to relent. "The onus rests squarely on Hamas ... to stop its rocket attacks," says a State Department spokesman. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is planning diplomatic visits to Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Cairo within days.