Gaza has come under renewed bombardment from Israel, as agreement on a ceasefire to end a week of violence remains elusive.

At least 20 Palestinians were reported to have been killed on Tuesday. Two Israelis – a soldier and a civilian – were killed in rocket strikes.

Earlier, Egyptian and Palestinian officials said a ceasefire would shortly be announced at talks in Cairo.

But Israel has said a deal is not yet done.

And late on Tuesday, a senior Hamas official, Izzat Risheq, said a deal might not be reached until the morning.

The Israeli military said that a soldier had been killed in the Eshkol area by a rocket fired from Gaza – the first military fatality in the recent upsurge.

An Israeli civilian working for the defence ministry was killed by another strike in the Negev desert.

The latest flare-up began last week with the killing of a Hamas military leader. Israel says that assassination, and its subsequent offensive, aims to end rocket fire from Gaza.

Gaza’s health ministry says at least 130 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have died since last Wednesday. Three Israeli civilians died last Thursday in the Israeli town of Kiryat Malachi.

Also late on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Israel, in an effort to support moves towards a ceasefire.

After late-night talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she is due to travel to Ramallah in the West Bank and Cairo on Wednesday.

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