Future developments in the Gaza conflict -- attrition warfare, a ground incursion or a ceasefire -- depend on events on the ground, the status of the forces on both sides and internal dynamics, analysts say.

-- What is the current balance of power in the conflict?

Israel pounded Gaza on Saturday with scores of air strikes, killing 10 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and bringing down an 12-story apartment building as Egypt called for new truce talks.

Since a previous round of frantic Egyptian diplomacy collapsed last Tuesday, shattering nine days of calm, 86 Palestinians and a four-year-old Israeli boy have been killed in the violence.

Israel and Palestinian militants resumed fire across the Gaza border on Tuesday, sparking panic across the war-torn enclave and halting truce talks.

Gaza emergency services said that a woman and a child were killed and 16 people injured in one strike in Gaza City.

Negotiators in Cairo were pushing Israel and the Palestinians to put a decisive end to weeks of bloodshed in Gaza Monday as the clock ticked down on another temporary truce.

As the death toll in the war-torn Gaza Strip pushed over 2,000, Egyptian negotiators were pressing both sides to reach agreement before a midnight (2100 GMT) deadline which will mark the end of a five-day truce.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that Israel will hit back hard if Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza resume, speaking just hours before the midnight expiry of a five-day ceasefire.

"We are ready for all scenarios... the army is ready to respond with force if the firing (of rockets) resumes," he said in a meeting with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon in Ashdod, a statement said.

Israel warned Sunday it would not countenance any long-term truce deal that did not answer its security needs as Gaza ceasefire talks were set to resume in Cairo.

Egyptian-brokered indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are taking place during a five-day lull in the fighting which is due to expire at midnight (2100 GMT) on Monday.

First Israel's Iron Dome air defense system protected millions from rocket attacks. Now the state is assembling a "legal Iron Dome" to defend itself against potential allegations of war crimes in Gaza.

For Israel, the threat of another fight -- not on the battlefield but in the courts -- materialized on Monday with the appointment of a U.N. committee to investigate "all violations of international human rights and humanitarian law" in the occupied Palestinian territories since mid-June.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lashed out Wednesday at the U.N. Human Rights Council, accusing it of granting "legitimacy to terror organizations" by investigating Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

"UNHRC gives legitimacy to murderous terror organizations like Hamas and Daash (Islamic State)," he said, accusing the rights body of overlooking "massacres" committed elsewhere in the Middle East in favor of investigating Israel for defending itself against rocket attacks from Gaza.

Israel and the Palestinians have agreed a new 72-hour Gaza ceasefire that would start at 0500 GMT Tuesday, said a senior official in Egypt, which is hosting truce talks.

"Egypt's contacts with relevant parties have achieved a commitment for a 72-hour truce in Gaza starting from 0500 GMT tomorrow morning, and an agreement for the rest of the relevant delegations to come to Cairo to conduct further negotiations," the official told Agence France-Presse.

Thousands of protesters, many wrapped in Palestinian flags, rallied outside the White House on Saturday to call for peace and an end to the fighting in Gaza.

The crowd, young and old from across the United States, including scores of children on parents' shoulders, chanted "End U.S. Aid to Israel" and "Israel out of Palestine."