UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State John Kerry are in Cairo to for a diplomatic push towards a ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge” has claimed almost 600, mostly civilians.  The death toll on the Israeli side is 27 soldiers and two civilians.

While reaffirming Israel’s right to protect itself from Hamas’ rockets, Kerry acknowledged the vast hardship suffered by the Palestinians and said the US would send some A$50 Million to Gaza “to try to alleviate the immediate humanitarian crisis.”  Kerry urged Hamas to “make the decision to spare innocent civilians.”  Ban said both sides should accept an immediate and unconditional ceasefire before he visits Israeli and Palestinians leaders on Tuesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said the operation would continue until its goals were achieved.  “The IDF is advancing on the ground according to plans, and the operation will continue to expand until its goal is achieved – restoring the calm to Israeli citizens for a long time,” said Netanyahu.

Hamas was likewise adamant.  “We’ll never go back to the slow death,” said the senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh.  “Our demands are fair and they are humane.  Our people have decided.”

Among those demands: Israel and Egypt must agree to open border crossings to ease travel and the flow of goods; and Israel must free Hamas prisoners who were jailed en masse after the killing of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank last month.

Meanwhile, Israeli tanks shelled a hospital in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least five people and wounding at least another 50, many of them doctors who were trying to treat the hundreds of people wounded earlier.  The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) blamed Hamas for putting the anti-tank weapons it was targeting too close to the hospital.