text: It will be the first top level meeting of the diplomatic Quartet in six months. 
   
   Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend the meeting at UN headquarters in New York. 
   
   EU foreign affairs representative Baroness Ashton will take part by videoconference, diplomats said. 
   
   Mrs Clinton, Mr Lavrov and Mr Ban will then join a UN Security Council debate on the Arab Spring. 
   
   A wounded Palestinian boy is wheeled into a hospital in Gaza City after an Israeli air strike (REUTERS/Ahmed Zakot) 
   
   Israel's air force pounded Gaza overnight with a series of raids which killed three people, raising the death toll to 21 in a wave of tit-for-tat violence that began with Israel's killing of a senior militant on Friday. 
   
   The fresh attacks prompted China calling on Israel toh alt its raids. 
   
   "China is concerned about the escalation of the situation in Gaza," a foreign ministry spokesman said. 
   
   "We call upon the Israeli side to stop air raids against Gaza. We hope parties concerned can stop firing immediately in order to avoid casualties of innocent civilians." 
   
   Wounded Palestinian children receive medical atttention at a hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip following an Israeli air raid (MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images) 
   
   Israel said Palestinian militants had fired a total of 180 rockets from the impoverished territory since the violence erupted, leaving four Israelis wounded. 
   
   On Sunday, Israel called on the UN Security Council to take action over the rocket assault. 
   
   It criticised the low-key international response to attacks from Gaza and warned in a letter signed by Israeli deputy UN Ambassador Haim Waxman that it would take "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. 
   
   Meanwhile, the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said the Security Council must "act with urgency to address this crisis" accusing Israel of staging an "escalation of deadly violence and terror". 
   
   He said women and children were among "dozens" of wounded and the dead also included a farmer killed while working in his field. 
   
   Talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been frozen since September 2010 and the decades-old conflict has become overshadowed by the uprising in neighbouring Syria. Quartet efforts to revive the talks have come to nothing. 
   
   Angered by Israel's settlement construction in the occupied territories, the Palestinian leadership has stepped up efforts to bring the international spotlight back on their demands for an independent state. 
   
   At the UN General Assembly last September, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, made a high profile application for full Palestinian membership of the global body. But the United States has threatened to veto any recommendation for membership made by the UN Security Council. 
   
   The United States and Israel say only direct talks can produce an accord that will set up a new state. 
   
   The same day as Abbas made his bid at the UN, the Quartet launched a new initiative to press the two sides back into talks, setting a timetable for Palestinians and Israelis to make proposals on the borders and security for a new Palestinian state. 
   
   Preliminary contacts in Jordan in January failed to get agreement on new direct talks however. 
   
   The Palestinians last year won membership of UNESCO and say they could seek seats with other international agencies. But other measures to increase international recognition and draw attention to the conflict have failed. 
   
   Using its powers as a permanent member of the Security Council, the United States last year vetoed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements which the UN and all major powers consider illegal. 
   
   The Palestinians last month invited the Security Council to visit the Palestinian territories. The United States has led resistance to that idea. Many observers say there is no prospect for a breakthrough until after the US presidential election in November. 
   
   The Quartet held its last top-level meeting at the UN General Assembly in September. 
   
   Source: AFP ||||| Photo: YAAKOV LAPPIN 
   
   A Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in the Gedera area on Monday, marking the northern-most point hit by terrorists in the current round of escalation that began Friday and has included the launching of some 200 rockets by terrorists targeting southern Israel. A subsequent blast hit a residential area of Ashdod causing extensive damage to homes and lightly injuring two people. 
   
   The Grad, which struck in the Gedera area, was one of 31 rockets fired into Israel on Monday. Some damage was caused to a structure in the attack. 
   
   At least eight of the 31 rockets fired on Monday were intercepted by the Iron Dome rocket defense system, including several fired toward Ashdod. 
   
   However, one Grad rocket not intercepted by the Iron Dome hit a residential area of Ashdod on Monday afternoon, causing damage to homes. One of the injured, an elderly woman, was evacuated to Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot after being struck by flying glass shards. One other person was injured from glass and eight people were treated for shock following the attack. 
   
   Another large southern city, Beersheba, was also victimized by rocket fire on Monday. Two rockets landed in an open area outside of the city and a third rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome. 
   
   One of seven rockets fired at the Eshkol Regional Council area overnight fell near a kindergarten, causing damage to a building. 
   
   The Home Front Command, along with the heads of a number of local authorities in southern Israel, decided Sunday night to cancel school in all towns and cities located between 7 km to 40 km from the Gaza Strip for the second straight day. The decision applied to the cities of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, Sderot, Kiryat Malachi, Gadera, Rahat, Yavneh, Lakiyeh, and the Gan Yavneh Regional Council. 
   
   The IDF continued to respond to the attacks with at least nine airstrikes launched against terror targets in Gaza overnight Sunday and on Monday. 
   
   Palestinian Islamic Jihad said that two armed terrorists belonging to the organization were killed in IAF strikes, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed since hostilities began Friday to 20. 
   
   Palestinians later reported that three Palestinian civilians had been killed in IAF strikes. Gaza hospital sources added that 25 civilians were hurt when an Israeli rocket hit a house in northern Gaza. The IDF did not confirm the Palestinian reports. 
   
   The IAF strikes carried out early Monday morning targeted a weapons-storage site and four rocket-launch sites in the northern Gaza Strip and one rocket-launch site in the southern Gaza strip. The IDF confirmed hits on its targets, and stated that the strikes were in response to rocket fire. 
   
   The latest round of violence flared on Friday when an air strike killed two Palestinian terror leaders in Gaza accused by Israel of planning a cross-border attack via Egypt. A salvo of rockets followed, leaving six people wounded in Israel. 
   
   Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights The agreement was reached with the help of Egyptian mediators, the official says 
   
   An Israeli government spokesman did not immedaitely comment on the report 
   
   Seven people were killed Monday in Gaza, officials say 
   
   The U.N. secretary-general says he is "gravely concerned" by the violence 
   
   After days of pounding violence, Palestinian and Israeli authorities have agreed to a truce and to stop all military operations, an Egyptian intelligence official told CNN early Tuesday. 
   
   The agreement was reached with the help of Egyptian mediators, the official said. 
   
   Israeli government spokesman David Baker did not immediately comment on the reported cease-fire. 
   
   Seven people were killed Monday in Gaza, and more than three dozen rockets fell into Israel, the latest events in days of fighting that marked the worst escalation of violence in the coastal territory in months, officials said. 
   
   Israel said its airstrikes have targeted militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory in response to more than 200 rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel since Friday. More than 36 rockets were fired into Israel on Monday, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 
   
   In Gaza, at least 25 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 80 people have been wounded. 
   
   "When I was sleeping, all of a sudden I found the entire house falling on top of us," Gaza resident Samer Sukar said from a hospital bed. "What can I say? There was no rocket fire from near our house." 
   
   Sukar said he was injured in a blast Monday while he was at home with his wife and six children. 
   
   Meanwhile, in the southern Israeli city of Ashdod, residents took cover. 
   
   JUST WATCHED Israeli airstrikes target Gaza Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Israeli airstrikes target Gaza 01:53 
   
   "It's a very difficult time for us," said Eti Ifrah, 23. "It's impossible to live like this -- every time we want a shower or anything we're worried a bomb will fall." 
   
   Nearly 1 million people in Israel have sought the safety of shelters during the violence, authorities said. 
   
   The fighting is the worst outbreak of violence in Gaza this year and comes as Israel and the world's attention has been largely focused on Iran and Syria. 
   
   "I am gravely concerned at the latest escalation between Gaza and Israel, and once again civilians are paying a terrible price," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement Monday. "Rocket attacks out of Gaza against Israeli civilian areas are unacceptable and must stop immediately. I reiterate my call on Israel to exercise maximum restraint." 
   
   Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told lawmakers Monday that the military "is ready to expand its operations and continue them as necessary." 
   
   "The (Israeli military) is continuing to -- strongly and decisively -- attack the terrorists in the Gaza Strip," he said. "Whoever intends to harm our citizens -- we will strike at him." 
   
   A spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad warned Israeli citizens Monday to stay in their bunkers, vowing the group would fire more rockets into southern Israel. 
   
   Speaking at a press conference Monday in Gaza City, Abu Ahmad boasted his group had fired dozens of longer-range Grad rockets into Israel and a larger number of smaller short-range rockets. 
   
   He spoke later to the Islamic Jihad radio station, warning Israel "not to test our patience." 
   
   Twelve Israeli military tanks have moved some 200 meters inside the Gaza border area, according to Palestinian security forces in Gaza. 
   
   Gaza officials cautioned Monday that any further escalation of hostilities would tax the fragile health care system. 
   
   "If we face a new war on Gaza, I am sure the health system will collapse," said Bassem Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas-controlled government. 
   
   Three civilians and four militants were reported killed in Gaza on Monday, but Israeli and Palestinian officials offered different accounts of the violence. 
   
   Palestinian medical officials said an Israeli airstrike killed a civilian man and woman and injured three others Monday afternoon in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Beit Lahia. 
   
   The Israeli military said its strike hit a residential area from which militants fired a rocket. 
   
   "This incident is a blatant example of how terror organizations use human shields to carry out terror attacks from the heart of urban areas and, as occurred in this incident, lead to the apparent injury of uninvolved persons," the military said. 
   
   Israeli and Palestinian officials also offered conflicting accounts of another blast Monday that killed a 15-year-old boy in Gaza. 
   
   Palestinian medical and security sources said an Israeli airstrike killed the teen, but the Israeli military said it did not attack the area where the death was reported. 
   
   "We did not attack during those hours of the morning in the northern Gaza Strip," Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich told CNN, saying that Israeli military activity during the time was focused on southern Gaza. 
   
   "One of the possibilities is that one of the terrorist organizations in Gaza fired a rocket that landed inside Gaza," Leibovich said, noting that some two dozen rockets fired by Palestinians militants in the last four days have landed inside Gaza. 
   
   Two militants also were killed in overnight airstrikes in southern Gaza, Palestinian officials said, and 40 people were injured. Later, Palestinian officials said two more Islamic Jihad militants were killed and a third was injured in an airstrike "east of Gaza." An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was looking into the report. 
   
   The deaths brought the number of Palestinians killed since Friday afternoon to 25, with more than 80 injured, according to Palestinian medical officials. 
   
   Netanyahu suggested Sunday that the new cycle of attacks and counterattacks resulted from a successful Israeli strike on "an arch-terrorist who organized many attacks against the state of Israel." 
   
   "Naturally, this led to another round with the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad and other groups," Netanyahu said, naming Palestinian militant groups.
target: – With 23 Palestinians now dead in the latest Gaza conflict, the Middle East Quartet is meeting for the first time in six months in New York. Hillary Clinton, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and EU diplomat Baroness Ashton will discuss the growing violence after Israeli air raids killed five more people, including three civilians and a pair of militants. Israel yesterday sought UN Security Council action over rocket attacks from Gaza. China has also weighed in on the situation, calling on Israel to halt its air raids, the Telegraph notes. Iran has labeled the raids "war crimes," urging international condemnation against the "abhorrent violation of human rights." Among the reported dead today was a 15-year-old boy, CNN reports, though Israel said it did not bomb the area where he was killed. For its part, Israel says its attacks "destroyed launching pits" for Iranian-built rockets. Some 31 more rockets were launched from Gaza today, bringing the total to more than 200, according to the Jerusalem Post.