Israel resumes Gaza strikes as death toll rises

Israeli jets have struck several sites in Gaza, including a refugee camp and a building inside the compound housing the strip's largest hospital, disrupting a relative lull at the start of a major Muslim holiday.

Monday’s airstrikes followed an almost 12-hour pause in fighting and came as international efforts intensified to end the three-week war between Israel and Hamas, reports Aljazeera.

Medics said that an Israeli missile hit a building close to the main gate of Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Monday, with an AFP correspondent reporting damage to the inside of the gate itself.

In a separate attack, at least seven children were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a refugee camp, medics said.

The United Nations on Monday called for an "immediate" ceasefire in the fighting that has already killed more than 1,040 Palestinians, 43 Israeli soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side.

At least two more Palestinians were killed on Monday. A four-year-old boy died when tank shells hit his family's house in Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip, Gaza health officials said. Another person was killed by tank shelling in a separate incident, also in Jabaliya.

The military said at least a dozen rockets had been fired from Gaza at Israel since midnight.

Eid of mourning

As Muslims began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, there was fear and mourning on Monday instead of holiday cheer in large parts of Gaza.

Palestinian families huddled inside their homes, fearing more airstrikes, while those who came to a cemetery in Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighbourhood to pay traditional respects at their ancestors' graves gathered around a large crater from an airstrike a week ago that had broken up several graves.

Amid an eerie calm, the call to Eid prayer echoed in the southern town of Rafah on Monday morning. Dozens of worshippers lined the rows of a severely destroyed mosque, with a collapsed roof and missing walls. Many of the faithful looked sombre during the traditional holiday sermon.

In Gaza City, dozens of men prayed in the courtyard of a UN school surrounded by school desks. Children and women stood on a higher level overlooking the worshippers.

"We are suffering and will suffer but we need our rights, our houses, our lands and our farms to return to us and we will not accept living a miserable life," said Abu Saber Jalees, who fled fighting to seek shelter at the school.

Amid a slowdown in the fighting, rescue teams uncovered five bodies in a village east of Khan Younis, said Saed al-Saoudi, the commander of the Civil Defence in Gaza.

UN unsuccessful truce bid

In New York, an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council called for "an immediate and unconditional humanitarian ceasefire".

And while it was the council's strongest statement yet on the Gaza war, it was not a resolution and therefore not binding.

The council's presidential statement also called on the parties "to engage in efforts to achieve a durable and fully respected ceasefire, based on the Egyptian initiative."

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, spoke with UN chief Ban Ki-moon, according to a statement from his office, in which he voiced his dismay with the announcement.

"It does not include a response to Israel's security needs and the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip," he said.