Israel hits dozens of targets in Gaza

Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Smoke rises as flames spread across buildings after Israeli strikes in the Shijaiyah neighborhood in Gaza City, Tuesday, July 22, 2014. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Israel bombed five mosques, a sports stadium and the home of the late Hamas military chief across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, a Gaza police official said, as the U.N. chief and the U.S. secretary of state launched a high-level effort to end two weeks of deadly fighting.

Air strikes set off huge explosions that turned the night sky over Gaza City orange. The sound of the blasts mixed with the thud of shelling, often just seconds apart, and the pre-dawn call to prayer from mosque loudspeakers.

The unusually intense Israeli strikes came as U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Cairo to launch the highest-level push yet to end two weeks of Israel-Hamas fighting that has claimed at least 570 Palestinian and 29 Israeli lives.

The U.N. has said a majority of the Palestinians killed were civilians, among them dozens of children. In Israel, the army said two more soldiers were killed in clashes with Hamas fighters, bringing the number of troops killed since July 8 to 27. Two Israeli civilians have also been killed.

Early Tuesday, Israeli aircraft hit more than 70 targets in the Gaza Strip, including the home of the late leader of Hamas' military wing, five mosques and a football stadium, said Gaza police spokesman Ayman Batniji.

Batniji said tank shells damaged several houses along the eastern border of the territory and that at least 19 fishing boats were burned by Israeli navy shells fired from the Mediterranean.