Gaza death toll crosses 600

Stop fighting and start talking, says UN chief to both sides

• Israel continues airraids
• Forces strike 190 terrorist targets over the past 24 hours
• Several mosques, a stadium and a hospital were destroyed
• Number of Palestinians seeking UN refuge exceeds 100,000: UN

Gaza/Jerusalem: Israel on Tuesday bombed several mosques, a hospital and a stadium in the Hamas-ruled Gaza even as international efforts intensified to broker a ceasefire to end the 15-day conflict that has killed 604 Palestinians and 29 Israelis.

As the death toll mounted, the US and the UN appealed to both sides to end the hostilities that has claimed the live civilians, including children. US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN chief Ban Ki-moon are in Egypt to try to arrange a ceasefire.

Ban Ki-moon has urged Israel and the Palestinians to "stop fighting" and "start talking" to end the conflict in Gaza.

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) struck some 190 terrorist targets over the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, including over 100 in Shejaia. However, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni ruled out any ceasefire until the IDF finishes an operation aimed at destroying tunnels used by militants for cross-border attacks.

Several mosques, a stadium and a hospital were destroyed in today's strikes. Israel launched its ground operation in Gaza after days of air strikes, following rocket fire by militants into Israeli towns. Israel said the move was necessary to target Hamas' network of tunnels, which have been used by militants to get into Israel and carry out attacks.

"First of all, it won't happen before we really finish the tunnels project which was laid out as a strategic objective," Livni said. At least five persons were killed and 70 others injured in the Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza, Palestinian health ministry sources said, adding that several doctors were also wounded in the attack.

The IDF said it had targeted a cache of anti-tank missiles in the hospital's "immediate vicinity". Over 30 members of two Palestinian families also died in Israeli strikes overnight, Gazan health officials said. The IDF announced that nine soldiers were killed, raising the number of Israeli military fatalities since the operation commenced to 27. Two Israeli civilians have also been killed.

One of the IDF soldiers classified as "missing" in Gaza was declared dead. However his body is still missing. So far, 604 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,700 wounded since Israel began its Operation Protective Edge on July 8, Gaza Health Ministry officials said.

UN agencies working in Gaza said that more than 100,000 Gazans have now been displaced and have sought shelter in UNRWA facilities where providing basic necessities "is an impossible challenge".

"Civilian casualties are a tragic inevitability of (Hamas') brutal and systematic exploitation of homes, hospitals and mosques in Gaza," the IDF said in a statement. It said that approximately 131 rockets and mortars were fired at Israel, of which at least 108 hit Israel and 17 were intercepted.

Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN that any ceasefire agreement is possible only if it brings "sustainable quiet"."We'll stop our operations when we can bring back quiet to our people," he said.