An Israeli soldier taking part in the assault on Gaza has been reported missing, as the number killed in the 15-day conflict passed 560 people, including nearly 100 children.
Three Palestinians have been killed in three separate airstrikes, raising the Palestinian toll to 539 since the assault began on July 8.
Two more Israeli soldiers have also been confirmed dead after fighting on Monday, with another three seriously wounded overnight.
The latest deaths raise the Israeli toll to 29 people.
The missing soldier is understood to be one of seven personnel who had been inside an armoured vehicle hit by an anti-tank missile on Sunday. The Israeli military has only been able to identify six of the dead.
It follows claims by Hamas it had captured a soldier, which was denied by Israel's ambassador to the UN.
Smoke rises during heavy Israeli bombing in Gaza 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.
He plans to stay in Cairo until Wednesday morning, and currently has no scheduled end for his regional trip, which could include talks with Qatari officials.
As Mr Kerry arrived in Cairo, the US confirmed it would provide $47m (£27m) 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 today for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and also to meet Palestinian officials in the West Bank.
Israeli tanks stand outside the northern Gaza Strip 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."
The Israeli army said four of its soldiers died on Monday during a battle with Hamas fighters trying to sneak into the country through cross-border tunnels.
Four other people were killed and 70 were injured at the al Aqsa hospital when an Israeli tank shell struck the hospital, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The International Committee of the Red Cross issued a statement condemning the attack "in the strongest terms".
It said the hospital came under direct fire at least four times and life-saving equipment had been severely damaged.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas militants of firing rockets from the grounds of Gaza hospitals and seeking refuge there.
Israel's aerial bombardment has so far resulted in an exodus of more than 100,000 Palestinian civilians, according to the United Nations.
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