AFP/Gaza City

The world implored Israel and Hamas yesterday to end hostilities as warplanes pounded Gaza for a fifth straight day, killing at least 46 Palestinians, and militants replied with rockets.
Both sides have brushed off calls for a truce, and Israel is building up troops and armour on the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion.
As the Palestinian death toll hit 151, and with no Israelis killed, the UN Security Council urged Israel and Hamas to respect “international humanitarian laws” and stop the loss of life.
In a unanimous declaration, the 15-member council urged a return to the “calm and restitution of the November 2012 ceasefire”, referring to Gaza’s last deadly full-scale conflict.
At least 15 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza City late yesterday, medics said.
“At least 15 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Tuffah neighbourhood in Gaza City that hit a house and a mosque,” emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.  
Another 35 were wounded in the same strike, and one more person was killed in an attack on southern Gaza’s Rafah that also injured five people, Qudra said.  
The strikes came after Hamas launched a barrage of long-range rockets at Israeli cities including Tel Aviv, after issuing a warning that it would strike.
Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel late yesterday, the military said, adding that no casualties were reported.
Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points.
On Friday, the United Nations’ Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said a majority of those killed in Gaza so far – 77%—were civilians.
Israel’s aerial campaign - the largest and deadliest since 2012 - saw strikes start early yesterday, including one that hit a centre for the handicapped, and another that killed two nephews of Gaza’s former Hamas premier, Ismail Haniya.
International efforts were under way to mediate a truce, with Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s spokesman saying he was in touch with both sides.
In Washington, the White House has said it is willing to “leverage” its relationships in the region to bring about a ceasefire.
The chief diplomats of Britain, France, Germany and the United States are due to discuss how to achieve a truce when they meet in Vienna today, on the sidelines of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Tehran’s foreign minister, Mohamed Javad Zarif, in a taped interview with US broadcaster NBC, urged Washington to use the United Nations to stop the Israeli strikes.
Speaking at a news conference in Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said he would not end the military campaign until he achieved his goal of stopping the Hamas fire.
“No international pressure will prevent us from striking, with all force, against the terrorist organisation which calls for our destruction,” he said.  
Haniya said Israel started it.
“(Israel) is the one that started this aggression and it must stop, because we are (simply) defending ourselves,” he said.
Israel says preparations are under way for a possible ground incursion, with tanks and artillery massed along the border and some 33,000 reservists mobilised out of 40,000 approved by the cabinet.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has said he expected a political decision on a possible ground operation to be taken by today.