Updated 15.34
A child and three women - one of them pregnant - have been killed in airstrikes on Gaza say medics as the Israeli military confirmed one of its soldiers was missing presumed dead.
The latest deaths came as diplomatic efforts were stepped up aimed at securing a ceasefire in the bloody conflict. The four civilians died in two separate Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza strip.
The missing Israeli soldier was one of seven personnel who had been inside an armoured vehicle hit by an anti-tank missile on Sunday.
The military has only been able to identify six of the dead, but a spokesman denied any possibility the unaccounted for soldier was still alive.
It follows claims by Hamas it had captured a soldier, which was denied at the time by Israel's ambassador to the United Nations (UN).
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) and Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Sameh Hassan Shokry Selim (right) in Cairo | Image: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Militants displayed a photo ID and army serial number raising fears they had seized his remains, which could be used to exchange for prisoners.
It came as the number killed in the 15-day conflict passed 560 people, including nearly 100 children.
Palestinians killed since the assault began on July 8th has reached 539, while the number of Israeli dead rose to 29 people.
Children 'almost one quarter' of Palestinian fatalities
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says the past 24 hours marked the deadliest period since the current escalations of violence began.
It says 107 Palestinians have been killed in that time, including 23 women and 35 children.
The total number of children killed in the current conflict has now passed 100 and represents almost one quarter of all Palestinian fatalities, UNRWA says.
13 Israeli soldiers were also reportedly killed in this 24 hour period.
"The densely populated Shejayeh area, in the Eastern part of Gaza City suffered the most extreme levels of violence during this period, with at least 72 Palestinians killed (38 men, 13 women and 21 children) in a major escalation of the IDF ground offensive" the UN agency says.
"Scenes at Shifa Hospital following the escalation in Shejayeh have been widely reported, with hospital staff overwhelmed with mass casualties".
Irish foreign affairs minister Charlie Flanagan says he believes the intervention of a third party will be needed to agree a ceasefire in Gaza.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels this morning, the Minister said it was regrettable that a deal brokered by Egypt last week was not accepted by both Israel and Hamas.
Minister Flanagan says a two-state solution was desirable in the long-term, but for now a ceasefire was the EU top priority:
Dr Mads Gilbert - a doctor in Shifa hospital in Gaza - told Newstalk Breakfast earlier about the patients he treated yesterday:
Meanwhile Paul Hirshon, spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, told Breakfast Hamas are to blame for the death of civilians - adding that Dr Mads Gilbert is not a credible speaker:
The continued violence comes as diplomatic efforts intensify in Cairo, where US Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting Egyptian leaders including the country's president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
As Mr Kerry arrived in Cairo, the US confirmed it would provide US$47 million in humanitarian aid for Gaza.
"We will work to see if there is some way to not only arrive at a ceasefire of some kind, but to get to a discussion about the underlying issues" Mr Kerry said at the start of a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday.
"Nothing will be resolved by any ceasefire, temporary or long, without really getting to those issues at some point, and that's what we need to do".
A senior State Department official said Mr Kerry's diplomatic efforts are aimed at achieving "a cessation of hostilities as soon as possible":
Mr Ban is scheduled to fly to Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also to meet Palestinian officials in the West Bank. But Israel has signalled it is not willing to reach a truce before it knocks out militant infrastructure in Gaza, including networks of tunnels along the Gaza frontier.
"This is not the time to talk of a ceasefire," Israel's communications minister Gilad Erdan said.
"We must complete the mission, and the mission cannot end until the threat of the tunnels is removed."
Israel's aerial bombardment has so far resulted in an exodus of more than 100,000 Palestinian civilians, according to the United Nations.
Broadcaster targetted
It comes amid reports of gunshots fired into the bureau of broadcaster Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip.
The channel said the shots "caused panic among the civilians living in the same building but no casualties have been reported".
"Two very precise shots were fired straight into our building" Al Jazeera reporter Stefanie Dekker said from Gaza.
"We are high up in the building so we had a very strong vantage point over the area. But we have evacuated".
"Our office building also has many residential apartments. People [are] leaving, panicked. The AP [news agency] also has office there and [has] evacuated" she added.
