Gaza City (CNN) -- The soldier that Israel claimed Hamas militants captured Friday, as a temporary cease-fire to the conflict in Gaza rapidly unraveled, is dead, Israel's military said. 
 
 "Lieutenant Hadar Goldin ... was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip on Friday, August 1," the Israel Defense Forces announced early Sunday. 
 
 It's not clear whether Goldin, 23, was captured as the IDF had previously said, or whether he died alongside two other soldiers in an armed clash in Gaza. Military spokesman Peter Lerner said Goldin was promoted to lieutenant posthumously. 
 
 Speculation about his fate was already up in the air after the armed wing of Hamas, the al Qassam Brigades, announced it had lost contact with a group of its fighters in the Rafah area -- the same area where Goldin was reportedly taken. 
 
 In a statement posted on its website, the militant group says it assumes all the fighters died in an Israeli airstrike, including possibly an Israeli soldier. The group -- which denied having info on Goldin -- stopped short of saying the soldier was captured, using the phrasing "assuming he was captured by the fighters." 
 
 Whatever happened, the entire ordeal has only served to heighten the hostilities -- with Israel claiming it must attack Gaza in order to prevent the onslaught of rocket attacks on its territory, while Hamas and other Palestinians assert Israel is the aggressor and directly responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths. 
 
 And the bloodshed shows no signs of letting up. 
 
 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Saturday to "continue to act in full scale" against Hamas until all militant tunnels are destroyed. 
 
 He told reporters in Tel Aviv that Israeli troops have "managed to hurt severely" the capability of Hamas during the Gaza operation. But they're not done. 
 
 "In the beginning of the operation we promised to bring back calm and order (to Israel), and we will continue to operate until this goal is reached no matter how much time or force it takes," Netanyahu said. 
 
 The prime minister said that after the tunnels are destroyed, Israeli forces will "regroup," depending on their security needs. 
 
 Izzat Risheq a senior Hamas leader and a member of its political bureau, told CNN that Netanyahu's statement was "an admission of failure, defeat and confusion." 
 
 "The Palestinian resistance will continue to stand up to this Zionist aggression and defend our people until this aggression stops and the siege ends and the just goals of our people are achieved," he said. 
 
 Barbs and accusations fly 
 
 Each side continued to blame the other for the collapse of an attempted cease-fire Friday, which disintegrated before it ever really took hold. 
 
 Israel has blamed Hamas for going after its soldiers, including Goldin, soon after the cease-fire was to begin. Since then, the IDF has resumed shelling -- including hitting 200 "terror targets" in Gaza in the past 24 hours, including "tunnels, weapon manufacturing and storage facilities, and command and control centers." 
 
 A huge predawn blast rocked Gaza as the Islamic University was apparently hit by Israeli shelling. According to the IDF, it was targeting "a Hamas military wing facility" involved in weapons development within the building. 
 
 In addition, Israeli aircraft targeted a missile launcher used to fire at Tel Aviv early Saturday, the IDF said. 
 
 Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told CNN's Nic Robertson that Israel thwarted the temporary peace by staying in Gaza and destroying tunnels there. 
 
 "A truce is a truce, but the presence of the Israeli forces inside Gaza and destroying the tunnels means it's an aggression," he said in an exclusive interview from Doha, Qatar. 
 
 "The Palestinian resistance has the right to self-defense and the right to deal with the invading Israeli forces who are inside our Gaza territories." 
 
 Talking about the Israelis, Meshaal said, "What were they doing during the truce? They were destroying tens of houses, justifying their actions that they were looking for tunnels. What kind of cease-fire is this, it has no meaning this way." 
 
 The Palestinian death toll Saturday stood at at least 1,712, with more than 9,000 wounded, said Dr. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza, via Twitter. The dead included 398 children, 207 women and 74 elderly people. 
 
 In a statement, Palestinian officials warned of a public health disaster because of the lack of water, sanitation and primary health care. 
 
 The health ministry said 10,000 homes have been destroyed in the Israeli operation, displacing 450,000 people. Shelters were overcrowded and unsanitary. Cases of viral meningitis have jumped from five to 53 per day, the ministry says. And shelling and aerial attacks prevented authorities from retrieving decomposing bodies, which pose a significant health threat. 
 
 Ata Abu Rezq, a father of eight in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, described the bombing there as relentless. He reported fire and smoke about 10 miles away in Rafah. 
 
 His family has had no electricity for at least 36 hours and is relying on a generator for power, he said. "When it runs out ... we will have to see what happens," he said. 
 
 "We use gas to cook. When we run out of gas, we will really be in trouble." 
 
 What is Hamas' endgame in Gaza? 
 
 What is Israel's endgame in Gaza? 
 
 Peace efforts out of Cairo 
 
 As the conflict continued, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi touted an Egyptian cease-fire initiative as a "real chance" to stop the bloodshed and the best way to get help into Gaza and launch talks. 
 
 An Egyptian proposal put forward last month was accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas. 
 
 An official Palestinian delegation arrived in Cairo on Saturday to attend the negotiations, the official news agency MENA reported. 
 
 The delegation included a representative of Fatah and Palestinian intelligence, with Hamas and Islamic Jihad representatives set to arrive later, the report said. 
 
 "We're hoping that they will be able to negotiate not just an end to this latest tragic bloodshed and to save lives and end this carnage, but also to try to dismantle all the causes that have brought about such a horrific situation," Hanan Ashrawi, executive committee member of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the West Bank, told CNN's "New Day. 
 
 But, according to Israeli media reports, Israel will not send a delegation to Cairo. 
 
 The divisions between the two were on display as far away as Washington, D.C., where thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators rallied outside of the White House, calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel. 
 
 "Palestinians are humans, too. We bleed all the same," said Nader Kalifa, an American of Palestinian descent. "The innocent civilians, all they want is peace. They just want some hope. We need to give them something." 
 
 Tensions flared when a small group of pro-Israel protesters gathered on the margins of the pro-Palestinian rally. Both groups shouted slogans and, in a handful of cases, some strong words, at each other. 
 
 Inside a Hamas tunnel 
 
 Opinion: Gaza peace struggle drains me of hope 
 
 What you need to know about the Israel-Hamas blame game 
 
 CNN's Mary Grace Lucas, Greg Botelho, Ray Sanchez, Karl Penhaul, John Vause, Tal Heinrich, Phil O'Sullivan, Samira Said and Ali Younes contributed to this report. Salma Abdelaziz is in Gaza with Vause. ||||| Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters) 
 
 Israel says it has expanded its ground offensive in Gaza and militants keep up rocket fire with no sign of a diplomatic breakthrough to end the fighting. (Reuters) 
 
 Hamas militants intensified their attacks on Israeli forces Saturday, killing two soldiers on Israeli soil and attacking others with antitank missiles, machine guns, even an explosives-laden donkey, apparently undaunted by Israel’s incursion into the Gaza Strip. 
 
 As the conflict stretched into its 12th day, the militants’ resilience seemed to upend the narrative provided by Israel of a Hamas severely weakened by the Israeli ground offensive, airstrikes, artillery barrages and the ongoing destruction of its tunnel network. 
 
 In their most audacious attack Saturday, Hamas fighters dressed in Israeli army uniforms slipped from central Gaza into Israel through a tunnel and attacked an Israeli army patrol, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. The army returned fire, killing one militant and forcing the rest back through the tunnel into the Palestinian territory. 
 
 In all, three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground offensive began Thursday night. 
 
 Hamas, military analysts said, is much better prepared militarily than in its two previous conflicts with Israel, in 2009 and 2012. Since then, the Islamist group has invested millions in building large quantities of short- and long-range rockets, as well as acquiring other sophisticated weaponry. 
 
 1 of 38 Full Screen Autoplay Close July 18, 2014 July 17, 2014 Thursday Skip Ad × Israel launches ground invasion of Gaza View Photos Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. Caption Backed by artillery shells and airstrikes, assault continues. July 19, 2014 Israeli soldiers patrol near the Israeli-Gaza border. Two Israeli soldiers were killed early Saturday during an attack by Hamas militants, Israel’s military said.The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 At the same time, Hamas’s political and economic situation is in its worst state since the group seized control of Gaza in 2007. It no longer has the support of Iran, Syria or Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia because of its refusal to back President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war. In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Hamas is an offshoot, is no longer in power. Much of the Arab world, in fact, no longer supports the militants, crippling them financially. 
 
 “They are really stressed. They have to work very hard to achieve meaningful or strategic developments,” said Kobi Michael, former head of the Palestinian desk at Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs. 
 
 “They are much more violent and extremist than in previous campaigns,” he added. 
 
 In a second attempt Saturday to enter Israel through their tunnels, Hamas militants were found carrying handcuffs and tranquilizers in an apparent attempt to kidnap soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that the militants were killed. In a third incident, a militant emerged from a concealed tunnel entrance in southern Gaza and began firing at soldiers. 
 
 Saturday’s attempted infiltrations into Israel, coming as thousands of Israeli soldiers focus on dismantling the Hamas tunnel network along Gaza’s border, suggested that the number of tunnels could be far greater than believed. If Hamas continues to use them to kill and injure Israeli soldiers or target civilians in Israel, it could prompt Israel to widen its ground offensive and push deeper into Gaza, swelling civilian casualties. 
 
 The Palestinian death toll from the conflict rose Saturday to more than 330, including about 60 children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. An additional 2,200 have been injured. The United Nations estimates that about 80 percent of the casualties are civilians, many of them children. 
 
 More than 60,000 Palestinians are seeking refuge in U.N. shelters. By Saturday, large swaths of the coastal enclave, including Gaza City, had been without electricity for 24 hours. Residents worry about their water supply, since they need electrical power to pump water to their rooftop tanks. 
 
 Israeli tanks dig into Gaza's eastern frontier, as casualty numbers rise on both sides amid fresh fighting. (Reuters) 
 
 Citing its concern about reports of severe shortages of medicines, Israel briefly opened its Erez crossing into Gaza to allow medical supplies in. 
 
 Israeli troops and Gaza militants engaged repeatedly in exchanges of small-arms fire.A midday gun battle near the no-man’s land between the fence and populated areas in central Gaza left several Israeli soldiers injured. An overnight attack by a militant near Beit Lahiya wounded three Israeli soldiers. And in southern Gaza, three more soldiers were injured when an explosive device planted by Hamas militants detonated. 
 
 “The resistance is roughly as we were expecting, maybe a little bit lower,” a senior Israeli military official told reporters Saturday, speaking on the condition of anonymity in accord with military protocol. “We expect Hamas to fight.” 
 
 In one incident, militants strapped a donkey with explosives and pushed it in the direction of Israeli soldiers, Israel’s military said, adding that soldiers “engaged the donkey and it exploded at a safe distance” without injuring any troops. 
 
 Much of Hamas’s ammunition and weaponry has been smuggled in from Iran or Sudan, through tunnels that stretched from Egypt into Gaza, according to Israeli intelligence officials. So were raw materials used by Hamas engineers to assemble sophisticated homemade rockets and other weapons. There are also reports that Hamas has acquired drones. 
 
 But since the ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood last year, Egypt’s military has destroyed most, if not all, of the tunnels entering Gaza and closed off its border. 
 
 A high-ranking Israeli intelligence officer told reporters in a briefing Saturday that Hamas’s fighters were unable to match Israel’s firepower and that Israel was “using its power on the ground to ruin those tunnels.” He said Hamas’s weapons arsenal had been reduced by about half and that the Israeli army “believes that it has caused a lot of damage” to the group. 
 
 Still, as they tangled with Israeli troops on the ground, Hamas and other militant factions continued to fire a steady barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. 
 
 Since Israel’s ground offensive began Thursday night, some 160 rockets have been fired, Israel’s military said, saying the number represented a “limited decline.” 
 
 “Not a big change, but the numbers are smaller than in the past couple of days,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, an Israeli Army spokesman. 
 
 In southern Israel, though, a Hamas rocket killed a Bedouin man — the second Israeli civilian killed in the conflict — and badly injured an infant girl Saturday, said officials with Magen David Adom, Israel’s first aid agency. Twenty-nine people were slightly injured in the attack. 
 
 Sirens rang over communities in southern Israel all day. 
 
 During the ground offensive, Israeli troops have attacked more than 300 Hamas targets, including 112 command centers and 95 rocket launchers, the military said, and have found 13 tunnels from Gaza into Israel, with 31 openings. 
 
 In Gaza, evacuees watched from the top floor of an elementary school northeast of Khan Younis, one of the enclave’s hardest-hit areas, as round after round of Israeli tank and artillery shells fell a mile or two away. 
 
 Ten men gathered in front of a grocery store were killed before dawn when an Israeli missile struck the pavement. Small BB-size pieces of shrapnel flew from the explosion and flecked the walls with pinpoint holes. 
 
 The men’s funerals were sponsored by Hamas and Fatah, the other leading Palestinian party. Their bodies were draped in the flags of their movements, while religious and martial music blared. 
 
 Sanna Siri — whose sons Mohammad, 17, and Yahiva, 20, were killed — cried out to God and cursed the Israelis minutes after the funeral procession left her home. 
 
 “My sons went to the heavens as angels,” Siri said. She called the Israelis “pigs” and said she hoped they suffer. 
 
 Booth reported from Gaza City. ||||| Displaced Palestinians pass time at a U.N school where they now live, in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, on Thursday, July 31, 2014. Israeli attacks in the strip continued Thursday, with witnesses saying... (Associated Press) 
 
 JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will destroy the Hamas tunnel network in the Gaza Strip "with or without a cease-fire," as the military called up another 16,000 reservists to pursue its campaign in the densely-populated territory. 
 
 Netanyahu's vow came as international efforts to end the 23-day-old conflict seemed to sputter despite concern over the mounting death toll, with more than 1,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and more than 50 Israelis, almost all of them soldiers, killed since July 8. 
 
 "We have neutralized dozens of terror tunnels and we are committed to complete this mission, with or without a cease-fire," Netanyahu said. "Therefore I will not agree to any offer that does not allow the military to complete this important mission for the security of the people of Israel." 
 
 An initial Israeli aerial campaign against Hamas was widened into a ground offensive on July 17. Since then the campaign has concentrated on destroying more than 30 cross-border tunnels that militants have constructed to carry out attacks on Israeli territory. 
 
 Israel says that most of the 32 tunnels it has uncovered have now been demolished and that getting rid of the remainder will take no more than a few days. 
 
 The new reserve call-up follows another day of heavy fighting, in which tank shells struck a U.N. school where Palestinians were sheltering and an airstrike tore through a crowded Gaza shopping area. At least 116 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were killed Wednesday. 
 
 Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss the matter with the press, an Israeli defense official said the purpose of the latest call-up was to provide relief for troops currently on the Gaza firing line. However, Israeli officials have also said they do not rule out broadening operations in the coming days. 
 
 Fifty-six Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side have been killed since the offensive began, as Palestinians have fired hundreds of rockets at Israel -- some reaching major cities -- and carried out attacks through tunnels beneath the heavily guarded frontier. 
 
 Israel has called up a total of 86,000 reserves during the Gaza war, which it launched to try to end rocket fire from Hamas and other armed groups. 
 
 Israeli attacks in the strip continued Thursday, with witnesses saying that munitions struck the Omar Ibn al-Khatab mosque next to a U.N. school in the northern town of Beit Lahiya. Israeli fire near another U.N. school in Gaza killed more than a dozen people the day before, drawing international condemnation. 
 
 The strike in Beit Lahiya early Thursday damaged water tanks on the roof of a building near the mosque, sending shrapnel flying into the adjacent school compound, where dozens of Palestinians displaced by the fighting had taken shelter. 
 
 "The shrapnel from the strike on the mosque hit people who were in the street and at the entrance of the school," said Sami Salebi, an area resident. 
 
 Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said at least 15 people were wounded, with three of them in critical condition. 
 
 Kifah Rafati, 40, was being treated for shrapnel injuries at the nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital. She said she and her six children had been sleeping in a classroom facing the mosque when the explosion went off. "There is no safety anywhere," she said. 
 
 On Wednesday Israeli tank shells struck a U.N. school in the Jebaliya refugee camp where some 3,300 Gazans had crammed in to seek refuge from the fighting, killing at least 17 people. The military said it was responding to mortar fire coming from the area of the school. 
 
 But Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the deadly school shelling "outrageous" and "unjustifiable," and demanded an immediate humanitarian cease-fire. 
 
 "Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children," the U.N. chief said. 
 
 The White House also criticized the shelling of the U.N. school in Jebaliya. 
 
 "We are extremely concerned that thousands of internally displaced Palestinians who have been called on by the Israeli military to evacuate their homes are not safe in U.N. designated shelters in Gaza," said Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House's National Security Council. 
 
 Later on Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded shopping area in the Shijaiyah district in Gaza City, killing at least 16 people, including Palestinian video journalist Rami Rayan, who was wearing a press vest at the time, and wounding more than 200 people, al-Kidra said. 
 
 Thursday marked a third day of particularly heavy Israeli air and artillery attacks, at a time when Egyptian cease-fire efforts appeared to have stalled. Israeli media said late Wednesday that Israel's Security Cabinet decided to press forward with the operation. 
 
 Egyptian officials, meanwhile, met with an Israeli envoy about Israel's conditions for a cease-fire, including disarming Hamas, according to a high-ranking Egyptian security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss the delicate diplomatic efforts. 
 
 Hamas has said it will only halt fire once it receives guarantees that a Gaza border blockade by Israel and Egypt -- tightened after the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza in 2007 -- will be lifted. 
 
 Israel says it wants to decimate Hamas' rocket-launching capability, diminish its weapons arsenal and demolish the tunnels. It has launched more than 4,000 strikes against Hamas-linked targets, including rocket launchers and mosques where it says weapons were being stored. 
 
 Israeli strikes have also hit dozens of homes. Mahmoud Abu Rahma of the Palestinian human rights group Al Mezan said nearly half of the Palestinians killed so far died in their homes. 
 
 Israeli officials have said Hamas uses Gaza's civilians as human shields by firing rockets from crowded neighborhoods. Palestinian militants have fired more than 2,600 rockets at Israel over the past three weeks. 
 
 However, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, chief of the U.N. aid agency for Palestinian refugees, said Israel must try harder to ensure that civilians are not hurt, especially in Gaza, where 1.7 million people are squeezed into a small coastal territory. His agency has opened 80 of its schools to more than 200,000 Palestinians fleeing the violence. 
 
 "What maybe the world forgets ... is that the people of Gaza have nowhere to go," he said. "So when the fighting starts and they move, it is not as if they can cross a border to somewhere." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Barzak reported from Gaza City, Gaza Strip. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Families are on the run in Gaza, reports Lyse Doucet; Quentin Sommerville in Israel says its tanks are on the move 
 
 The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, stepping up its 11-day-old military operation. 
 
 Troops and tanks were sent into Gaza to deal "a significant blow to Hamas", Israel said. 
 
 A Hamas spokesman said Israel would "pay a high price" for its actions. 
 
 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the invasion after days of intensive rocket fire and air strikes between the two sides. 
 
 Gaza's health ministry said 24 Palestinians had been killed and 200 injured since the ground offensive began on Thursday night. 
 
 A five-month-old child was among the dead, Palestinian medics told AFP news agency. Israel said it had killed 14 "terrorists" overnight. 
 
 Israel meanwhile suffered its first military fatality, with the death of a soldier during the invasion, it said. 
 
 Some 258 Palestinians - three-quarters of them civilians - have died since the start of the wider Israeli operation on 8 July, officials in Gaza say. 
 
 An Israeli civilian was killed from mortar fire, and several Israelis have been seriously injured, Israeli medics say. 
 
 'Heavy clashes' 
 
 Announcing the ground offensive, the Israeli military said: "Following 10 days of Hamas attacks by land, air and sea, and after repeated rejections of offers to de-escalate the situation, the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has initiated a ground operation within the Gaza Strip." 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Lyse Doucet was among the journalists and residents evacuated from an area of Gaza 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "Clearly this is a major escalation of this conflict," reports Quentin Sommerville in Tel Aviv 
 
 It said the goal was to "establish a reality in which Israeli residents can live in safety and security without continuous indiscriminate terror, while striking a significant blow to Hamas' terror infrastructure". 
 
 In Gaza City overnight, plumes of black smoke could be seen from the border area where Israeli troops were operating, AP news agency reported. 
 
 At the scene: Paul Adams, BBC News, Gaza City 
 
 It's hard to get a detailed picture, since the main focus of Israeli activity is some distance from downtown Gaza. But it's clear this is not yet a full-scale ground invasion. 
 
 Areas in the north and south of the Gaza Strip came under heavy bombardment overnight, but ground operations are so far limited. An Israeli military spokesman told us that troops had destroyed tunnels along the border. 
 
 He also confirmed that troops and armour remain just inside a largely unpopulated area in the north. 
 
 The Israeli military is testing the water, gauging the level of opposition before deciding whether or not to move deeper inside the Gaza Strip. The death of one of its own soldiers, at this early stage, will have come as a warning of the dangers ahead. 
 
 But Prime Minister Netanyahu seems determined to inflict greater damage on Hamas and that could mean sending his troops into densely populated areas. This will be dangerous for them, and potentially devastating for any Palestinian civilians in the way. 
 
 Israel said the initial phase was aimed at targeting tunnels Hamas has dug under the border with Israel to use in attacks. 
 
 On Wednesday 13 militants infiltrated into Israel through a tunnel aiming to attack a kibbutz, Israeli officials said. The Israeli military said it killed at least one of the militants, while the others retreated through the tunnel. 
 
 Reuters news agency said Palestinians reported heavy clashes along the length of the eastern border, as well as in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya. 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Palestinian militants fire missiles at Israel amid Israeli air strikes 
 
 Military spokesman Gen Moti Almoz warned residents of Gaza to evacuate areas in which the army was operating. "This operation will be extended as much as necessary," he said. 
 
 Israel approved the drafting of 18,000 more reservists on Thursday evening, bringing the total of extra troops called up since 8 July to 65,000. 
 
 Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said that the Israeli ground operation was "destined to failure". 
 
 "What the occupier Israel failed to achieve through its air and sea raids, it will not be able to achieve with a ground offensive", he said. 
 
 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the ground operation would lead to "more bloodshed" and called on Israel to stop. 
 
 Mr Abbas, whose Fatah party recently agreed to a unity government with Hamas, was meeting Egyptian officials in Cairo amid efforts to negotiate a truce. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Are Israeli strike warnings effective? The BBC examines footage from both sides 
 
 The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says it is possible that with the ground invasion Israel is seeking to improve its military position in advance of any deal, but that more probably it has concluded that a ceasefire at the moment in unlikely. 
 
 Israel says it has carried out more than 1,960 attacks on Gaza since 8 July, while militants have fired some 1,380 rockets at Israel. It says more than 50 rockets have been fired at Israel since the ground operation began. 
 
 The UN says at least 1,370 homes have been destroyed in Gaza and more than 18,000 people displaced in recent hostilities. 
 
 The ground offensive follows attempts in Cairo to negotiate a new ceasefire. 
 
 There was a temporary ceasefire on Thursday to allow Palestinians to stock up on supplies and aid workers to distribute water, food and hygiene kits. 
 
 The truce lasted for five hours, although both sides reported violations. ||||| 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.
– With day two of its ground offensive in Gaza under way, Israel says it's discovered 13 tunnels used by Hamas to infiltrate the country or store weapons, reports AP. Israeli tanks and bulldozers are focusing on a strip about a mile wide near the border, looking for both tunnels and rocket pads, reports Reuters. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two others injured today by Hamas fighters who emerged from one of those tunnels, reports the Washington Post. One Hamas militant also was killed in the firefight. Palestinians, meanwhile, say the death toll from Israeli airstrikes has passed 330, with nearly a quarter of those killed under the age of 18. In other developments: NBC reporter returns: NBC has reversed itself and allowed Ayman Mohyeldin to continue reporting from Gaza, reports AP. The network pulled Mohyeldin for unexplained reasons after he reported on the deaths of four Palestinian children, noting among other things that he had just been kicking around a ball with them. The move set off a social media outcry, especially among fellow journalists, notes Mediaite. The network had nothing but praise for Mohyeldin's "extraordinary reporting" in announcing his return. Analysis: In a New York Times analysis, Jodi Rudoren writes that the "landscape is different" than in years' past for this latest ground offensive, in ways that benefit Israel. This time, Israel "has publicly framed a clear agenda targeting tunnels it says militants built to store weapons or stage attacks on its territory. This time, a weakened Hamas cannot turn to Egypt for respite. This time, Western leaders appear more patient." That could change, however, if the ground offensive expands. Click for the full analysis.