Egypt's Prime Minister Hisham Kandil denounced Israel's attacks on the Palestinian territory during his visit Friday to the Gaza Strip.

He said Cairo would try to secure a ceasefire after two days of relentless attacks by Israeli warplanes determined to end militant rocket fire at Israel.

Israel said it would hold fire during Kandil's visit if Hamas did too.

But rockets fired from Gaza hit several sites in southern Israel and the Israeli air force responded with an attack on the house of Hamas's commander for southern Gaza.

Medics said it killed two people, one of them a child, raising the Palestinian death toll since Wednesday to 21 and the number of Palestinian children killed to 7.

Three Israelis were killed by a rocket on Thursday.

Meanwhile, firefighters extinguish flames at the Interior Ministry in Gaza following an Israeli hit.

In another part of Gaza City, residents picked through the debris of a mosque, after the building was damaged in another Israeli strike.

Broken lights and burnt Qurans littered the building.

The latest upsurge in the long-running conflict came on Wednesday when Israel killed Hamas' military mastermind, Ahmed Al-Jaabari, in a precision air strike on his car.

Israel then began shelling the coastal enclave from land, air and sea and have threatened an invasion of ground troops.